fopyright«?Xi£ CDEffilGHI DSlPCSm A GENERAL HISTORY ^s/o FOR a » COLLEGES AND HIGH SCHOOLS. BY P. V. N. MYERS, A.M., Author of "Ancient History," and " Medieval and Modern History." 'J©<00- BOSTON, U.S.A.: GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. 1889. ^lu Entered at Stationers' Hall. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year i88g, by P. V. N. MYERS, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. All Rights Reserved. Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Boston, U.S.A. Presswork by Ginn & Co., Boston, U.S.A. / PREFACE. THIS volume is based upon my Ancient History and Medieval a?td Modern History. In some instances I have changed the perspective and the proportions of the narrative ; but in the main, the book is constructed upon the same Hues as those drawn for the earher works. In deahng with so wide a range of facts, and tracing so many historic movements, I cannot hope that I have always avoided falling into error. I have, however, taken the greatest care to verify statements of fact, and to give the latest results of discovery and criticism. Considering the very general character of the present work, an enumeration of the books that have contributed facts to my narration, or have helped to mould my views on this or that subject, would hardly be looked for ; yet I wish here to acknowl- edge my special indebtedness, in the earlier parts of the history, to the works of George Rawlinson, Sayce, Wilkinson, Brugsch, Grote, Curtius, Mommsen, Merivale, and Leigh ton ; and in the later parts, and on special periods, to the writings of Hodgkin, Emerton, Ranke, Freeman, Michaud, Bryce, Symonds, Green (J. R.), Motley, Hallam, Thiers, Lecky, Baird, Miiller. Several of the colored maps, with which the book will be found liberally provided, were engraved especially for my Ancient His- tory ; but the larger number are authorized reproductions- of charts accompanying Professor Freeman's Historical Geography of Europe. The Roman maps were prepared for Professor William \ iv PREFACE. F. Allen's History of Rome, which is to be issued soon, and it is to his courtesy that I am indebted for their use. The illustrations have been carefully selected with reference to their authenticity and historical truthfulness. Many of those in the Oriental and Greek part of the work are taken from Oscar Jager's Weltgeschichte ; while most of those in the Roman portion are from Professor Allen's forthcoming work on Rome, to which I have just referred, the author having most generously granted me the privilege of using them in my work, notwithstanding it is to appear in advance of his. Further acknowledgments of indebtedness are also due from me to many friends who have aided me with their scholarly sug- gestions and criticism. My warmest thanks are particularly due to Professor W. F. Allen, of the University of Wisconsin ; to Dr. E. W. Coy, Principal of Hughes High School, Cincinnati; to Pro- fessor William A. Merrill, of Miami University ; and to Mr. D. H. Montgomery, author of The Leading Facts of History series. P. V. N. M. College Hill, Ohio, July, 1889. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Preface iii List of Maps x General Introduction: The Races and their Early Migrations. i Part I. ANCIENT HISTORY. Section I. — The Eastern Nations. CHAPTER I. India and China. 1. India 8 2. China 1 2 11. Egypt. 1. Political History i8 2. Religion, Arts, and General Culture 27 III. Chald^ea. 1 . Political History 4c 2. Arts and General Culture 4^ IV. Assyria. 1. Political History 48 2. Religion, Arts, and General Culture 52 V. Babylonia 58 VI. The Hebrews 63 VII. The Phoenicians 70 VIII. The Persian Empire. 1. Political History • 74 2. Government, Religion, and Arts 82 Section II. — Grecian History. IX. The Land and the People 87 X. The Legendary or Heroic Age , 93 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. PAGE Religion of the Greeks loi Age of the Tyrants and of Colonization : the Early Growth of Sparta and of Athens. 1. Age of the Tyrants and of Colonization 109 2. The Growth of Sparta 112 3. The Growth of Athens ,., 117 The Grseco-Persian Wars 125 Period of Athenian Supremacy 136 The Peloponnesian War : the Spartan and the Theban Supremacy. 1. The Peloponnesian War 147 2. The Spartan and the Theban Supremacy 155 Period of Macedonian Supremacy: Empire of Alexander. . . 159 States formed from the Empire of Alexander 170 Greek Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting. 1. Architecture 176 2. Sculpture and Painting 182 Greek Literature. 1. Epic and Lyric Poetry 190 2. The Drama and Dramatists 193 3. History and Historians 196 4. Oratory 198 Greek Philosophy and Science 203 Social Life of the Greeks 215 Section III. — Roman History. The Roman Kingdom 222 The Early Roman Republic : Conquest of Italy 232 The First Punic War 247 The Second Punic War 254 The Third Punic War 267 The Last Century of the Roman Republic 273 The Last Century of the Roman Republic {concluded^ 285 The Roman Empire (from 31 B.C. to a.d, 180) 305 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the West (a.d. 180-476) 324 Roman Civilization. 1 . Architecture 350 2. Literature, Philosophy, and Law 354 3. Social Life 359 CONTENTS. Vll Part II. MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY. INTRODUCTION. PAGE 366 Section I. — Medieval History. FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. (From the Fall of Rome, a.d. 476, to the Eleventh Century.) CHAPTER XXXII. Migrations and Settlements of the Teutonic Tribes...... 371 XXXIII. The Conversion of the Barbarians 377 XXXIV. Fusion of the Latin and Teutonic Peoples 385 XXXV. The Roman Empire in the East 3^9 XXXVI. Mohammed and the Saracens - 39^ ?vXXVII. Charlemagne and the Restoration of the Empire in the West 403 XXXVIII. The Northmen 4io XXXIX. Rise of the Papal Power 4^4 SECOND PERIOD. — THE AGE OF REVIVAL. (From the opening of the Eleventh Century to the Discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492.) XL. FeudaHsm and Chivalry. 1. Feudalism 421 2. Chivalry 4^9 XLI. The Norman Conquest of England 433 XLII. The Crusades. 1. Introductory : Causes of the Crusades 43^ 2. The First Crusade 44^ 3. The Second Crusade 443 4. The Third Crusade 444 5. The Fourth Crusade 44^ 6. Close of the Crusades : Their Results 447 XLIII. Supremacy of the Papacy: Decline of its Temporal Power. . 452 [LIV. Conquests of the Turanian Tribes 460 XLV. Growth of the Towns : The Italian City-Republics 464 -LVI. The Revival of Learning 47^ viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XLVII. Growth of the Nations : Formation of National Governments and Literatures. 1. England 479 2. France 491 3. Spain 498 4. Germany . .' 501 5. Russia , 508 6. Italy 509 7. The Northern Countries , 512 Section II. — Modern History. Introduction 513 THIRD PERIOD.— THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION. (From the Discovery of America to the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648.) XLVIII. The Beginnings of the Reformation under Luther 519 XLIX. The Ascendency of Spain. 1. Reign of the Emperor Charles V 530 2. Spain under Philip II 535 L. The Tudors and the English Reformation. 1. Introductory 539 2. The Reign of Henry VII 541 3. England severed from the Papacy by Henry VIII. .... 543 4. Changes in the Creed and Ritual under Edward VI.. . 550 5. Reaction under Mary 552 6. Final Establishment of Protestantism under Elizabeth. 554 LI. The Revolt of the Netherlands : Rise of the Dutch Repubhc 563 LII. The Huguenot Wars in France ... 572 LIII. The Thirty Years' War 582 FOURTH PERIOD. —THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION. (From the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, to the present time.) LIV. The Ascendency of France under the Absolute Government of Louis XIV 590 LV, England under the Stuarts: The English Revolution. 1. The First Two Stuarts 601 2. The Commonwealth 613 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTEK PAGE 3. The Restored Stuarts , 618 4. The Orange-Stuarts 626 5. England under the Earher Hanoverians 630 LVI. The Rise of Russia : Peter the Great 633 LVII. The Rise of Prussia : Frederick the Great 642 LVIII. The French Revolution. 1. Causes of the Revolution: The States-General of 1789. . 647 2. The National, or Constituent Assembly ... 65 1 3. The Legislative Assembly 655 4. The National Convention 657 5. The Directory 667 LIX. The Consulate and the First Empire : France since the Second Restoration. 1. The Consulate and the Empire. 673 2. France since the Second Restoration 688 LX. Russia since the Congress of Vienna 692 LXI. German Freedom and Unity 700 LXII. Liberation and Unification of Italy 708 LXIII. England since the Congress of Vienna. 1. Progress towards Democracy 715 2. Expansion of the Principle of Religious Equality 720 3. Growth of the British Empire in the East 723 Conclusion : The New Age 729 Index. Pronouncing Vocabulary, and Glossary 733 LIST OF COLORED MAPS. -*o^- PAGE ■ I. Ancient Egypt i8 2. The Tigris and the Euphrates 42 3. Greece and the Greek Colonies iii 4. Greece in the Fifth Century b.c 147 , 5. Dominions and Dependencies of Alexander, c. B.C. '323 163 \ 6. Kingdoms of Successors to Alexander, c. B.C. 300 171 7. Italy before the Growth of the Roman Power ' 222 8. Mediterranean Lands at the Beginning of Second Punic War 254 9. Roman Dominions at the End of the Mithridatic War 282 10. The Roman Empire under Trajan, A.D. 117 318 11. Roman Empire divided into Prefectures 333 12. Europe in the Reign of Theodoric, c. A.D. 500 371 13. Europe in the Time of Charles the Great, 814 408 14. Central Europe, 1360 506 15. The Spanish Kingdom and its European Dependencies under Charles V 530 16. Central Europe, 1801 674 17. Central Europe, 1810 681 18. Central Europe, 1815 684 19. South-Eastern Europe under the Treaty of Berlin, 1878 696 20. Europe in 1880 705 GENERAL HISTORY. -oOitHc GENERAL INTRODUCTION. THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. Divisions of History. — History is usually divided into three periods, — Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern. Ancient History begins with the earliest nations of which we can gain any certain knowledge, and extends to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, A.D. 476. Mediaeval History embraces the period, about one thousand years in length, lying between the fall of Rome and the discovery of the New World by Columbus, a.d. 1492. Mod- ern History commences with the close of the Mediaeval period and extends to the present time.^ Antiquity of Man. — We do not know when man first came into possession of the earth. We only know that, in ages vastly remote, when both the climate and the outhne of Europe were very different from what they are at present, man lived on that continent with animals now extinct ; and that as early as 4000 or 3000 B.C., — when the curtain first rises on the stage of history, — in some favored regions, as in the Valley of the Nile, there were nations and civilizations already venerable with age, and possess- ing languages, arts, and institutions that bear evidence of slow 1 It is thought preferable by some scholars to let the beginning of the great Teutonic migration (a.d. 375) mark the end of the period of ancient history. Some also prefer to date the beginning of the modern period from the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, a.d. 1453; while still others speak of it in a general way as commencing about the close of the 15th century, at which time there were many inventions and discoveries, and a great stir in the intellectual world. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. growth through very long periods of time before written hist*, begins.^ The Races of Mankind. — Distinctions in form, color, an. physiognomy divide the human species into three chief types, o races, known as the Black (Ethiopian, or Negro), the Yellow (Tura- nian, or Mongolian), and the White (Caucasian). But we must not suppose each of these three types to be sharply marked off from the others ; they shade into one another by insensible gradations. There has been no perceptible change in the great types during historic times. The paintings upon the oldest Egyptian monu- ments show us that at the dawn of history, about five or six thou- sand years ago, the principal races were as distinctly marked as now, each bearing its racial badge of color and physiognomy. As early as the times of Jeremiah, the permanency of physical characteristics had passed into the proverb, " Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" Of all the races, the White, or Cau- casian, exhibits by far the most perfect type, physically, intellectually, and mor- ally. The Black Race. — Africa is the home of the peoples of the Black Race, but we find tliem on all the other continents, whither they have been carried as slaves by the stronger races ; for since time immemo- rial they have been " hewers of wood and drawers of water " for their more favored brethren. The Yellow, or Turanian Race. — The term Turanian is very loosely applied by the historian to many and widely separated famihes and peoples. In its broadest application it is made to include the Chinese and other more .or less closely alhed peoples of Eastern Asia ; the Ottoman Turks, the Hungarians, the Finns, 1 The investigation and study of this vast background of human life is left to such sciences as Ethnology, Comparative Philology , and Prehistoric Archceology. NEGRO CAPTIVES, From the Monuments of Thebes, (Illustrating the permanence of race characteristics.) THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS. 3 e Lapps, and the Basques, in Europe ; and (by some) the Esqui- maux and American Indians. The peoples of this race were, it seems, the first inhabitants of Europe and of the New World ; but in these quarters, they have, in the main, either been exterminated or absorbed by later comers of the White Race. In Europe, however, two small areas of this primitive population escaped the common fate — the Basques, sheltered among the Pyrenees, and the Finns and Lapps, in the far north j^ while in the New World, the Esquimaux and the Indians still represent the race that once held undisputed pos- session of the land. The polished stone implements found in the caves and river- gravels of Western Europe, the shell-mounds, or kitchen-middens, upon the shores of the Baltic, the Swiss lake-habitations, and the barrows, or grave-mounds, found in all parts of Europe, are sup- posed to be relics of a prehistoric Turanian people. Although some of the Turanian peoples, as for instance the Chinese, have made considerable advance in civilization, still as a rule the peoples of this race have made but httle progress in the arts or in general culture. Even their languages have remained undeveloped. These seem immature, or stunted in their growth. They have no declensions or conjugations, like those of the lan- guages of the Caucasian peoples. The White Race and its Three Families. — The White Race embraces the historic nations. This type divides into three fami- lies, — the Hamitic, the Semitic, and the Aryan, or Indo-European (formerly called the Japhetic). The ancient Egyptians were the chief people of the Hamitic branch. In the gray dawn of history we discover them already settled in the Valley of the Nile, and there erecting great monu- ments so faultless in construction as to r&nder it certain that those who planned them had had a very long previous training in the art of building. ^ The Hungarians and Turks are Turanian peoples that have thrust them- selves into Europe during historic times. 4 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. The Semitic family includes among its chief peoples the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, and the Arabians. We are not certain what region was the original abode of this family. We only know that by the dawn of history its various clans and tribes, whencesoever they may have come, had distributed themselves over the greater part of Southwestern Asia. It is interesting to note that the three great historic religions of the world, — the Hebrew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan, — the three religions that alone (if we except that of Zoroaster) teach a belief in one God, arose among peoples belonging to the Semitic family. The Aryan, or Indo-European, though probably the youngest, is the most widely scattered family of the White Race. It includes among its members the ancient Hindus, Medes, and Persians, the classic Greeks and Romans, and the modern descendants of all these nations ; also almost all the peoples of Europe, and their colonists that have peopled the New World, and taken possession of other parts of the earth. This is the family to which we our- selves belong. Migrations of the Aryans. — The original seat of the Aryan peoples was, it is conjectured, somewhere in Asia. At a period that cannot be placed later than 3000 B.C., the Aryan household began to break up and scatter, and the different clans to set out in search of new dwelling-places. Some tribes of the family spread themselves over the table-lands of Iran and the plains of India, and became the progenitors of the Medes,- the Persians, and the Hindus. Other clans entering Europe probably by the way of the Hellespont, pushed themselves into the peninsulas of Greece and Italy, and founded the Greek and Italian states. Still other tribes seem to have poured in successive waves into Central Europe. The vanguard of these peoples are known as the Celts. After them came the Teutonic tribes, who crowded the former out on the westernmost edge of Europe — into Gaul and Spain, and out upon the British Isles. These hard-pressed Celts are represented to-day by the Welsh, the Irish, and the Highland Scots. Behind the THE RA CES AND THEIR EARL V MIGRA TIONS. 5 Teutonic peoples were the Slavonic folk, who pushed the former hard against the Celts, and, when they could urge them no farther to the west, finally settled down and became the ancestors of the Russians and other kindred nations. Although these migratory movements of the various clans and tribes of this wonderful Aryan family began in the early morning of history, some five thousand or more years ago, still we must not think of them as something past and unrelated to the present. These movements, begun in those remote times, are still going on. The overflow of the population of Europe into the different re- gions of the New World, is simply a continuation of the prehistoric migrations of the members of the primitive Aryan household. Everywhere the other races and families have given way before the advance of the Aryan peoples, who have assumed the position of leaders and teachers among the families of mankind, and are rapidly spreading their arts and sciences and culture over the earth. Early Culture of the Aryans. — One of the most fascinating studies of recent growth is that which reveals to us the customs, beliefs, and mode of life of the early Aryans, while they were yet liv- ing together as a single household. Upon comparing the myths, legends, and ballads of the different Aryan peoples, we discover the curious fact that, under various disguises, they are the same. Thus our nursery tales are found to be identical with those with which the Hindu children are amused. But the discovery should not surprise us. We and the Hindus are kinsmen, children of the same home ; so now, when after a long separation we meet, the tales we tell are the same, for they are the stories that were told around the common hearth-fire of our Aryan forefathers. And when we compare certain words in different Aryan lan- guages, we often find them alike in form and meaning. Thus, take the word father. This word occurs with but little change of form in several of the Aryan tongues.^ From this we infer that 1 Sanscrit, pitri ; Persian, padar ; Greek, iraT-fip (^pater); Latin, pater ; German, vater. 6 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. the remote ancestors of the now widely separated Aryan peoples once lived together and had a common speech. Our knowledge of the prehistoric culture of the Aryans, gained through the sciences of comparative philology and mythology, may be summed up as follows : They personified and worshipped the various forces and parts of the physical universe, such as the Sun, the Dawn, Fire, the Winds, the Clouds. The all-embracing sky they worshipped as the Heaven-Father {Dyaus-Pitar, whence Jupiter). They were herdsmen and at least occasional farmers. They introduced the sheep, as well as the horse, into Europe : the Turanian people whom they displaced had neither of these domestic animals. In social life they had advanced to that stage where the family is the unit of society. The father was the priest and absolute lord of his house. The families were united to form village-communities ruled by a chief, or patriarch, who was assisted by a council of elders. Importance of Aryan Studies. — This picture of life in the early Aryan home, the elements of which are gathered in so novel a way, is of the very greatest historical value and interest. In these customs and beliefs of the early Aryans, we discover the germs of many of the institutions of the classical Greeks and Romans, and of the nations of modern Europe. Thus, in the council of elders around the village patriarch, political historians trace the beginnings of the senates of Greece and Rome and the national parhaments of later times. Just as the teachings of the parental roof mould the life and character of the children that go out from under its disciphne, so have the influences of that early Aryan home shaped the habits, institutions, and character of those peoples and families that, as its children, went out to establish new homes in their " appointed habitations." RACES OF MANKIND. (races of mankind, with chief families and peoples. Black Race f Tribes of Central and Southern Africa, the Papuans and (Ethiopian, or -j the Australians. (This group includes two great divis- Negro). [ ions, the Negroid and Australoid.) (i) The Chinese, Burmese, Japanese, and other kindred peoples of Eastern Asia; (2) the Malays of Southeast- ern Asia, and the inhabitants of many of the Pacific islands; (3) the nomads (Tartars, Mongols, etc.) of Northern and Central Asia and of Eastern Russia; (4) the Turks, the Magyars, or Hungarians, the Finns and Lapps, and the Basques, in Europe; (5) the Esquimaux and the American Indians. Languages of these peoples are monosyllabic or agglutinative. (Note that the Ma- lays and American Indians were formerly classified as distinct races.) Yellow Race (Turanian, or - Mongolian). White Race (Caucasian). Hamitic Family Semitic Family r Egyptians, \ Libyans, [ Ethiopians. Chaldseans (partly Turanian), Assyrians, Babylonians, \ Canaanites (chiefly Semitic), Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arabs. Aryan, or Indo-Eu- ropean Family Indo-Iranic Branch Grseco-Italic Branch Hindus, Medes, Persians. Greeks, Romans. Gauls, Celtic Branch -( ^ ^ /■% • x,\ J Scots (Irish), Teutonic Branch Picts. High Germans, Low Germans, Scandinavians. Slavonic Branch / Russians, Poles, etc. The peoples of modern Germany are the descendants of various Germanic tribes. The Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes represent the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic family. The Irish, the Welsh, the Scotch Highlanders, and the Bretons of Brittany (anciently Armor- ica), in France, are the present representatives of the ancient Celts. The French, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians have sprung, in the main, from a blending of the Celts, the ancient Romans, and the Germanic tribes that thrust themselves within the limits of the Roman Em- pire in the West. The English are the descendants of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (Teu- tonic tribes), slightly modified by interminglings with the Danes and Normans (also of Teu- tonic origin). (See MedicEval and Modern History, pp. 169-178.) Part I. ANCIENT HISTORY SECTION I. — THE EASTERN NATIONS. CHAPTER I. INDIA AND CHINA. I . India. The Aryan Invasion. — At the time of the great Aryan migra- tion (see p. 4), some Aryan bands, journeying from the northwest, settled first the plains of the Indus and then occupied the valley of the Ganges. They reached the banks of the latter river as early probably as 1500 B.C. These fair-skinned invaders found the land occupied by a dark- skinned, non-Aryan race, whom they either subjugated and reduced to serfdom, or drove out of the great river valleys into the moun- tains and the half-desert plains of the peninsula. The Origin of Castes. — The conflict of races in Northern India gave rise to what is known as the system of castes ; that is, society became divided into a number of rigid hereditary classes. There arose gradually four chief castes: (i) Brahmans, or priests ; (2) warriors ; (3) agriculturists and traders ; and (4) serfs, or Sudras. The Brahmans were those of pure Aryan blood, while the Sudras were the despised and oppressed non- Aryan aborigines. The two middle classes, the warriors and the cultivators of the soil, were of mixed Aryan and non-Aryan blood. Below these several THE FED AS. 9 castes were the Pariahs, or outcasts, the most degraded of the degraded natives.^ The system of castes, modified however by various influences, particularly by the later system of Buddhism (see p. ii), has char- acterized Hindu society from the time the system originated down to the present, and is one of the most important facts of Indian history. The Vedas. — The most important of the sacred books of the Hindus are called the Vedas. They are written in the Sanscrit language, which is believed to be the oldest form of Aryan speech. The Rig- Veda, the most ancient of the books, is made up of hymns which were composed chiefly during the long period, per- haps a thousand years or more, while the Aryans were slowly working their way from the mountains on the northwest of India across the peninsula to the Ganges. These hymns are filled with memories of the long conflict of the fair-faced Aryans with the dark-faced aborigines. The Himalayas, through whose gloomy passes the early emigrants journeyed, must have deeply impressed the wanderers, for the poets often refer to the great dark moun- tains. Brahmanism. — The religion of the Indian Aryans is known as Brahmanism. This system gradually developed from the same germs as those out of which grew the Greek and Roman religions. It was at first a pure nature -worship, that is, the worship of the most striking phenomena of the physical world as intelligent and moral beings. The chief god was Dyaus-Pitar, the Heaven-Father. As this system characterized the early period when the oldest Vedic hymns were composed, it is known as the Vedic religion. 1 At a later period, the Brahmans, in order to perpetuate their own ascend- ancy and to secure increased reverence for their order, incorporated among the sacred hymns an account of creation which gave a sort of divine sanction to the system of castes by representing the different classes of society to have had different origins. The Brahmans, the sacred books are made to say, came forth from the mouth of Brahma, the soldier from his arms, the farmer from his thighs, and the Sudra from his feet. 10 INDIA AND CHINA. In course of time this nature-worship of the Vedic period de- veloped into a sort of pantheism, that is, a system which identifies God with the universe. This form of the Indian rehgion is known as Brahmanism. Brahma, an impersonal essence, is conceived as the primal existence. Forth from Brahma emanated, as heat and light emanate from the sun, all things and all life. Banish a per- sonal God from the universe, as some modern scientists would do, leaving nothing but nature with her original nebula, her endless cycles, her unconscious evolutions, and we have something very like Brahmanism. A second fundamental conception of Brahmanism is that all life, apart from Brahma, is evil, is travail and sorrow. We can make this idea intelligible to ourselves by remembering what are our own ideas of this earthly life. We call it a feverish dream, a journey through a vale of sorrow. Now the Hindu regards all conscious existence in the same light. He has no hope in a better future ; so long as the soul is conscious, so long must it endure sorrow and pain. This conception of all conscious existence as necessarily and always evil, leads naturally to the doctrine that it is the part of wisdom and of duty for man to get rid of consciousness, to anni- hilate himself, in a word, to commit soul-suicide. Brahman- ism teaches that the only way to extinguish self and thus get rid of the burden of existence, is by re-absorption into Brahma. But this return to Brahma is dependent upon the soul's purification, for no impure soul can be re-absorbed into the primal essence. The necessary freedom from passion and the required purity of soul can best be attained by self-torture, by a severe mortification of the flesh ; hence the asceticism of the Hindu devotee. As only a few in each generation reach the goal, it follows that the great majority of men must be born again, and yet again, until all evil has been purged away from the soul and eternal repose found in Brahma. He who lives a virtuous life is at death born into some higher caste, and thus he advances towards the longed- for end. The evil man, however, is born into a lower caste, or BUDDHISM. 11 perhaps his soul enters some unclean animal. This doctrine of re-birth is known as the transmigration of souls (metempsychosis^. Only the first three classes are admitted to the benefits of relig- ion. The Sudras and the outcasts are forbidden to read the sacred books, and for any one of the upper classes to teach a serf how to expiate sin is a crime. Buddhism. — In the fifth century before our era, a great teacher and reformer, known as Buddha, or Gautama (died about 470 B.C.), arose in India. He was a prince, whom legend repre- sents as being so touched by the universal misery of man- kind, that he voluntarily aban- doned the luxury of his home, and spent his life in seeking out and making known to men a new and better way of sal- vation, He condemned the severe penances and the self- torture of the Brahmans, yet commended poverty and retire- ment from active life as the best means of getting rid of desire and of attaining Nirvana, that is, the repose of unconsciousness. Buddha admitted all classes to the benefits of religion, the poor outcast as well as the high-born Brahman, and thus Buddhism was a revolt against the earlier harsh and exclusive system of Brah- manism. It holds somewhat the same relation to Brahmanism that Christianity bears to Judaism. Buddhism gradually gained the ascendancy over Brahmanism ; but after some centuries the Brahmans regained their power, and by the eighth century after Christ, the faith of Buddha was driven out of almost every part of India. But Buddhism has a profound missionary spirit, hke that of Christianity, Buddha having com- STATUE OF BUDDHA. 12 INDIA AND CHINA. manded his disciples to make known to all men the way to Nir- vana ; and consequently during the very period when India was being lost, the missionaries of the reformed creed were spreading the teachings of their master among the peoples of all the coun- tries of Eastern Asia, so that to-day Buddhism is the religion of almost one third of the human race, Buddha has probably nearly as many followers as both Christ and Mohammed together. During its long conflict with Buddhism, Brahmanism was greatly modified, and caught much of the gentler spirit of the new faith, so that modern Brahmanism is a very different religion from that of the ancient system ; hence it is usually given a new name, being known as Hinduism.^ Alexander's Invasion of India (327 b.c). — Although we find obscure notices of India in the records of the early historic peoples of Western Asia, yet it is not until the invasion of the peninsmla by Alexander the Great in 327 b.c. that the history of the Indian Aryans comes in significant contact with that of the progressive nations of the West. From that day to our own its systems of philosophy, its wealth, and its commerce have been more or less important factors in universal history. Greece carried on an intel- lectual commerce with this country ; Rome, and the Italian repub- lics of the Middle Ages, a more material but not less important trade. Columbus was seeking a short all-sea route to this coun- try when he found the New World. And in the upbuilding of the imperial greatness of the England of to-day, the wealth and trade of India have played no inconsiderable part. 2. China. General Remarks : the Beginning. — China is the seat of a very old civilization, older perhaps than that of any other land save Egypt ; yet Chinese affairs have not until recently exerted any appreciable influence upon the general current of history. 1 Among the customs introduced into Brahmanism during this period was the rite of Suttee, or the voluntary burning of the widow on the funeral pyre of her husband. DYNASTIC HISTORY. 13 All through ancient and mediaeval times the country lay, vague and mysterious, in the haze of the world's horizon. During the Middle Ages the land was known to Europe under the name of Cathay. The beginning of the Chinese nation was a band of Turanian wanderers who came into the basin of the Yellow River, from the West, probably prior to 3000 B.C. These immigrants gradually pushed out the aborigines whom they found in the land, and laid the basis of institutions that have endured to the present day. Dynastic History. — The government of China since the remot- est times has been a parental monarchy. The Emperor is the father of his people. But though an absolute prince, still he dare not rule tyrannically : he must rule justly, and in accordance with the ancient customs and laws. The Chinese have books that purport to give the history of the different dynasties that have ruled in the land from a vast antiquity ; but these records are largely mythical and legendary. Everything is confused and uncertain until we reach the eighth or seventh century before our era ; and even then we meet with little of interest in the dynastic history of the country until we come to the reign of Che Hwang-te (246-210 B.C.). This energetic ruler strengthened and consolidated the imperial power, and executed great works of internal improvement, such as roads and canals. As a barrier against the incursions of the Huns, he began the erection of the celebrated Chinese Wall, a great rampart extending for about 1500 miles along the northern frontier of the country.^ From the strong reign of Che Hwang- te to the end of the period 1 The Great Wall is one of the most remarkable works of man. " It is," says Dr. Williams, " the only artificial structure which would arrest attention in a hasty survey of the globe." It has been estimated that there is more than seventy times as much material in the wall as there is in the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and that it represents more labor than 100,000 miles of ordinary railroad. It was begun in 214 and finished in 204 B.C. It is twenty-five feet wide at base, and from fifteen to thirty feet high. Towers forty feet high rise at irregular intervals. In some places it is a mere earthen rampart; in others it is faced with brick; and then again it is composed of stone throughout. 14 INDIA AND CHINA. covered by ancient history, Chinese dynastic records present no matters of universal interest that need here occupy our attention. Chinese Writing. — It is nearly certain that the art of writing was known among the Chinese as early as 2000 B.C. The system employed is curiously cumbrous. In the absence of an alphabet, each word of the language is represented upon the written page by means of a symbol, or combination of symbols ; this, of course, requires that there be as many symbols, or characters, as there are words in the language. The number sanctioned by good use is about 25,000; but counting obsolete characters, the number amounts to over 50,000. A knowledge of 5000 or 6000 char- acters, however, enables one to read and write without difficulty. The task of learning even this number might well be hopeless, were it not that many of the characters bear a remote resemblance to the objects for which they stand, and when once explained, readily suggest the thing or idea represented. The nature of the characters shows conclusively that the Chinese system of writing, like that of all others with which we are acquainted, was at first purely hieroglyphical, that is, the characters were originally simply rude outline pictures of material objects. Time and use have worn them to their present form. This Chinese system of representing thought, cumbrous and inconvenient as it is, is employed at the present time by one third of the human race. Printing from blocks was practised in China as early as the sixth century of our era, and printing from movable types as early as the tenth or eleventh century, that is to say, about four hundred years before the same art was invented in Europe. Chinese Literature : Confucius and Mencius. — The most highly prized portion of Chinese hterature is embraced in what is known as the Five Classics and the Four Books, called collectively the Nine Classics. The Five Classics are among the oldest books in the world. For some of the books an antiquity of 3000 years is claimed. The books embrace chronicles, political and ethical maxims, and numerous odes. One of the most important of the INFLUENCE OF THE SAGE CONFUCIUS. 15 Classics is the so-called Book of Rites, said to date from 1200 B.C. The Four Books are of later origin than the Five Classics, having been written about the fifth and fourth centuries before the Christian era; yet they hardly yield to them in sacredness in the eyes of the Chinese. The first three of the series are by the pupils of the great sage and moralist Confucius (551-478 B.C.), and the fourth is by Mencius (371-288 B.C.), a disciple of Confucius^ and a scarcely less revered philosopher and ethical teacher. The teachings of the Four Books may be summed up in the simple precept, '' Walk in the Trodden Paths." Confu- cius was not a prophet, or revealer ; he laid no claims to a super- natural knowledge of God or of the hereafter ; he said nothing of an Infinite Spirit, and but little of a future life. His cardinal pre- cepts were obedience to superiors, reverence for the ancients, and imitation of their virtues. He himself walked in the old paths, and thus added the force of example to that of precept. He gave the Chinese the Golden Rule, stated negatively : " What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." During the reign of Che Hwang- te (see p. 13), Chinese litera- ture suffered a great disaster. That despot, for the reason that the teachers in their opposition to him were constantly quoting the ancient writings against his innovations, ordered the chief historical books to be destroyed, and sentenced to death any one who should presume to talk about the proscribed writings, or even allude to the virtues of the ancients in such a way as to reflect upon his reforms. The contumacious he sent to work upon the Great Wall. But the people concealed the books in the walls of their houses, or better still hid them away in their memories ; and in this way the priceless inheritance of antiquity was preserved until the storm had passed. Influence of this Literature and of the Sage Confucius. — It would be impossible to exaggerate the influence which the Nine Classics have had upon the Chinese nation. For more than 2000 years these writings have been the Chinese Bible. And as all of the 16 INDIA AND CHINA. Four Books, though they were not written by Confucius, yet bear the impress of his mind and thought, just as the Gospels teach the mind of Christ, a large part of this influence must be attrib- uted to the Hfe and teachings of that great Sage. His influence has been greater than that of any other teacher, excepting Christ and perhaps Buddha. His precepts, implicitly followed by his countrymen, have shaped their lives from his day to the present. ' The moral system of Confucius, making, as it does, filial obedi- ence and a conformity to ancient customs primary virtues, has exalted the family life among the Chinese and given a wonderful stability to Chinese society. Chinese children are the most obedi- ent and reverential to parents of any children in the world, and the Chinese Empire is the only one in all history that has pro- longed its existence from ancient times to the present. - But along with much good, one great evil has resulted from this blind, servile following of the past. The Chinese in strictly obeying the injunction to walk in the old ways, to conform to the customs of the ancients, have failed to mark out any new footpaths for themselves. Hence their lack of originaHty, their habit of imitation : hence the unchanging, unprogressive charac- ter of Chinese civilization. Education and Civil Service Competitive Examinations. — China has a very ancient educational system. The land was fifled with schools, academies, and colleges more than a thousand years before our era, and education is to-day more general among the Chinese than among any other pagan people. A knowledge of the sacred books is the sole passport to civil office and public employment. All candidates for places in the government must pass a competitive examination in the Nine Classics. This system is practically the same in principle as that which we, with great difficulty, are trying to establish in connection with our own civil service. The Three Religions, — Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. — There are three leading religions in China, — Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The great Sage Confucius is reverenced POLICY OF NON-INTERCOURSE. 17 and worshipped throughout the Empire. He holds somewhat the same relation to the system that bears his name that Christ holds to that of Christianity. Taoism takes its name from Tao, which is made, hke Brahma in Brahmanism, the beginning of all things. It is a very curious system of mystical ideas and superstitious prac- tices. Buddhism was introduced into China about the opening of ihe Christian era, and soon became widely spread. There is one element common to all these religions, and that is the worship of ancestors. Every Chinese, whether he be a Con- fucianist, a Taoist, or a Buddhist, reverences his ancestors, and prays and makes offerings to their spirits. Policy of Non-Intercourse. — The Chinese have always been a very self-satisfied and exclusive people. They have jealously excluded foreigners and outside influence from their country. The Great Wall with which they have hedged in their country on the north, is the symbol of their policy of isolation. Doubtless this characteristic of the Chinese has been fostered by their geographi- cal isolation ; for great mountain barriers and wide deserts cut the country off from communication with the rest of the Asiatic con- tinent. And then their reverence for antiquity has rendered them intolerant of innovation and change. Hence, in part, the unwil- hngness of the Chinese to admit into their country railroads, tele- graphs, and other modern improvements. For them to adopt these new-fangled inventions, would be like our adopting a new religion. Such a departure from the ways and customs of the past has in it, to their way of thinking, something akin to disrespect and irrev- erence for ancestors. 18 EGYPT. CHAPTER II. EGYPT. I. Political History. Egypt and the Nile. — Egypt comprises the delta of the Nile and the flood-plains of its lower course. The whole land is formed of the deposits of the river ; hence Herodotus, in happy phrase, called the country '^ the gift of the Nile." The delta country was known to the ancients as Lower Egypt ; while the valley proper, reaching from the head of the delta to the First Cataract, a distance of six hundred miles, was called Upper Egypt.' Through the same means by which Egypt was originally created, is the land each year still renewed and fertihzed. The Nile, swollen by the heavy tropical rains about its sources, begins to rise in its lower parts late in June, and by October, when the inundation has attained its greatest height, the country presents the appearance of an inland sea. By the end of November the river has returned to its bed, and the fields, over which has been spread a film of rich earth,^ present the appearance of black mud-flats. Usually the plow is run lightly over the soft surface, but in some cases the grain is sown upon the undisturbed deposit, and simply trampled in by flocks of 1 About seven hundred miles from the Mediterranean a low ledge of rocks, stretching across the Nile, forms the first obstruction to navigation in passing up the river. The rapids found at this point are termed the First Cataract. Six other cataracts occur in the next seven hundred miles of the river's course. 2 The rate of the fluviatile deposit is from three to five inches in a century. The surface of the valley at Thebes, as shovs'n by the accumulations about the monuments, has been raised seven feet during the last seventeen hundred years. CLIMA TE. 19 sheep and goats driven over it. In a few weeks the entire land, so recently a flooded plain, is overspread with a sea of verdure, which forms a striking contrast to the desert sands and barren hills that rim the valley. Climate. — In Lower Egypt, near the sea, the rainfall in the winter is abiindant ; but the climate of Upper Egypt is all but rainless, only a few slight showers falling throughout the year. This dryness of the Egyptian air is what has preserved through so many thousand years, in , such wonderful freshness of color and with such sharpness of outline, the numerous paintings and sculp- tures of the monuments of the Pharaohs. The southern line of Egypt only just touches the tropics ; still the climate, influenced by the wide and hot deserts that hem the valley, is semi-tropical in character. The fruits of the tropics and the cereals of the temperate zone grow luxuriantly. Thus favored in climate as well as in the matter of irrigation, Egypt became in early times the granary of the East. To it less favored countries, when stricken by famine, — a calamity so common in the East in regions dependent upon the rainfall, — looked for food, as did the families of Israel during drought and failure of crops in Pales- tine. Dynasties and Chronology. — The kings, or Pharaohs, that reigned in Egypt from the earliest times till the conquest of the country by Alexander the Great (332 B.C.), are grouped into thirty- one dynasties. Thirty of these we find in the lists of Manetho, an Egyptian priest who lived in the third century B.C., and who com- piled a chronicle of the kings of the country from the manuscripts kept in the Egyptian temples. We cannot assign a positive date to the beginning of the First Dynasty, chiefly because Egyptologists are at a loss to know whether to consider all the dynasties of Manetho's list as succes- sive or in part contemporaneous. Thus, it is held by some scholars that several of these families were reigning at the same time in the different cities of Upper and Lower Egypt ; while others think that they all reigned at different epochs, and that the sum 20 EGYPT, of the lengths of the several dynasties gives us the true date of the beginning of the political history of the country. Accordingly, some place the beginning of the First Dynasty at about 5000 B.C., while others put it at about 3000 B.C. The constantly growing evidence of the monuments is in favor of the higher figures. Menes, the First of the Pharaohs. — Menes is the first kingly personage, shadowy and indistinct in form, that we discover in the early dawn of Egyptian history. Tradition makes him the founder of Memphis, near the head of the Delta, the site of which capital he secured against the inundations of the Nile by vast dikes and various engineering works. To him is ascribed the achievement of first consolidating the numerous petty principalities of Lower Egypt into a single state. The Fourth Dynasty : the Pyramid Kings (about 2 700 b.c.) . — The kings of the Fourth Dynasty, who reigned at Memphis, are called the Pyramid builders. Kufu I., the Cheops of the Greeks, ■ was the first great builder. To him we can now positively ascribe the building of the Great Pyramid, the largest of the Gizeh group, near Cairo ; for his name has been found upon some of the stones, — painted on them by his workmen before the blocks were taken from the quarries. The mountains of stone heaped together by the Pyramid kings are proof that they were cruel oppressors of their people, and bur- dened them with useless labor upon these monuments of their ambition. Tradition tells how the very memory of these mon- arch s was hated by the people. Herodotus says that the Egyp- tians did not like even to speak the names of the builders of the two largest pyramids. The Twelfth Dynasty (about 2300 b.c). — After the Sixth Dynasty, Egypt, for several centuries, is almost lost from view. When finally the valley emerges from the obscurity of this period, the old capital Memphis has receded into the background, and the city of Thebes has taken its place as the seat of the royal power. The period of the Twelfth Dynasty, a line of Theban kings, is one of the brightest in Egyptian history. Many monuments scat- THE HYKSOS, OR SHEPHERD KINGS. 21 tered throughout the country perpetuate the fame of the sovereigns of this illustrious house. Egyptian civilization is regarded by many as having during this period reached the highest perfection to which it ever attained. The Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings (from about 2 100 to 1650 b.c.) . — Soon after the bright period of the Twelfth Dynasty, Egypt again suffered a great eclipse. Nomadic tribes from Syria crossed the eastern frontier of Egypt, took possession of the inviting pas- ture-lands of the Delta, and established there the empire of the Shepherd Kings. These Asiatic intruders were violent and barbarous, and de- stroyed or mutilated the monuments of the country. But grad- ually they were transformed by the civilization with which they were in contact, and in time they adopted the manners and cul- ture of the Egyptians. It was probably during the supremacy of the Hyksos that the families of Israel found a refuge in Lower Egypt. They received a kind reception from the Shepherd Kings, not only because they had the same pastoral habits, but also, probably, because of near kinship in race. At last these intruders, after they had ruled in the valley four or five hundred years, were expelled by the Theban kings, and driven back into Asia. This occurred about 1650 b.c. The episode of the Shepherd Kings in Egypt derives great importance from the fact that these Asiatic conquerors were one of the mediums through which Egyptian civilization was transmitted to the Phoeni- cians, who, through their wide commercial relations, spread the same among all the early nations of the Mediterranean area. And further, the Hyksos conquest was an advantage to Egypt itself. The conquerors possessed political capacity, and gave the country a strong centralized government. They made Egypt in fact a great monarchy, and laid the basis of the power and glory of the mighty Pharaohs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dy- nasties. The Eighteenth Dynasty (about 1650-1400 b.c). — The revolt which drove the Hyksos from the country was led by Amosis, or EGYPT. Ahmes, a descendant of the Theban kings. He was the first king of what is known as the Eighteenth Dynasty, probably the greatest race of kings, it has been said, that ever reigned upon the earth. The most eventful period of Egyptian history, covered by what is called the New Empire, now opens. Architecture and learning seem to have recovered at a bound from their long depression under the domination of the Shepherd Kings. To free his empire from the danger of another invasion from Asia, Amosis deter- mined to subdue the Syrian and Mesopotamian tribes. This for- eign policy, followed out by his successors, shaped many of the events of their reigns. Thothmes III., one of the greatest kings of this Eighteenth Dynasty, has been called " the Alexander of Egyptian history." During his reign the frontiers of the empire reached their greatest expan- sion. His authority extended from the oases of the Libyan desert to the Tigris and the Euphrates. Thothmes was also a magnificent builder. His architectural works in the valley of the Nile were almost numberless. He built a great part of the temple of Karnak, at Thebes, the remains of which form the most majestic ruin in the world. His ob- elisks stand to-day in Constantino- ple, in Rome, in London, and in New York. The name of Amunoph HL stands next after that of Thothmes HI. as one of the great rulers and builders of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The Nineteenth Dynasty (about 1400-1280 b.c). — The Pha- raohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty rival those of the Eighteenth in their fame as conquerors and builders. It is their deeds and worl;':, in connection with those of the preceding dynasty, that PHALANX OF THE KHITA: In the background, town protected by walls and nnoats. THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY. 23 have given Egypt such a name and place in history. The two great names of the house are Seti I. and Rameses II. One of the most important of Seti's wars was that against the Hittites {Khita, in the inscriptions) and their allies. The Hittites were a powerful non-Semitic people, whose capital was Carche- mish, on the Euphrates, and whose strength and influence were now so great as to be a threat to Egypt. But Seti's deeds as a warrior are eclipsed by his achievements as a builder. He constructed the main part of what is perhaps the most impressive edifice ever raised by man, — the world- renowned " Hall of Columns," in the Temple of Karnak, at Thebes (see illustration, p. 32). He also cut for himself in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, at the same place, the most ^ ^ ^ Z^ beautiful and elaborate of all the rock- jf^^^ % isf^^M ^ ft sepulchres of the Pharaohs (see p. 31). In W ^^^^.^^^^ addition to these and numerous other mm*- j^^^^3r works, he began a canal to unite the Red l^feT'^^^B^^'- ■ Sea and the Nile, — an undertaking which 1^^ ^ '.^^ ^^ * was completed by his son and successor, ^""WMJ^^ -^^ Rameses II., surnamed the Great, was ""^^w"^^^* the Sesostris of the Greeks. His is the seti r. (From a p'^to^-non of most prominent name of the Nineteenth ^ mummy. Dynasty. Ancient writers, in fact, accorded him the first place among all the Egyptian sovereigns, and made him the hero of innumerable stories. His long reign, embracing sixty-seven years, was, in truth, well occupied with military expeditions and the superintendence of great architectural works. His chief wars were those against the Hittites. Time and again is Rameses found with his host of war-chariots in their country, but he evidently fails to break their power ; for we find him at last concluding with them a celebrated treaty, in which the chief of the Hittites is called ''The Great King of the Khita " (Hit- tites), and is formally recognized as in every respect the equal of 24 EGYPT, the king of Egypt. Later, Rameses iiiarries a daughter of the Hittite king. All this means that the Pharaohs had met their peers in the princes of the Hittites, and that they could no longer hope to become masters of Western Asia. It was probably the fear of an invasion by the tribes of Syria that led Rameses to reduce to a position of grinding servitude the Semitic peoples that under former dynasties had been permitted to settle in Lower Egypt; for this Nineteenth Dynasty, to which Rameses IL belongs, was the new king (dynasty) that arose "which knew not Joseph" (Ex. i. 8), and oppressed the children RAMESES II. RETURNING IN TRIUMPH FROM SYRIA, with his chariot garnished with the heads of his enemies. (From the monuments of Karnal<.) of Israel. It was during the reign of his son Menephtha that the Exodus took place (about 1300 B.C.). The Twenty-sixth Dynasty(666-52 7 e.g.). — We pass without comment a long period of several centuries, marked, indeed, by great vicissitudes in the fortunes of the Egyptian monarchs, yet characterized throughout by a sure and rapid dechne in the power and splendor of their empire. During the latter part of this period Egypt was tributary to As- syria. But about 666 b.c, a native prince, Psammetichus I. (666- 612 B.C.), with the aid of Greek mercenaries from Asia Minor, THE TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY. 25 succeeded in expelling the Assyrian garrisons. Psammetichus thus became the founder of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. The reign of this monarch marks a new era in Egyptian history. Hitherto Egypt had secluded herself from the world, behind bar- riers of jealousy, race, and pride. But Psammetichus being him- self, it seems, of non- Egyptian origin, and owing his throne chiefly to the swords of Greek soldiers, was led to reverse the policy of the past, and to throw the valley open to the commerce and in- fluences of the world. His capital, Sai's, on the Canopic branch of the Nile, forty miles from the Mediterranean, was filled with Greek citizens ; and Greek mercenaries were employed in his armies. This change of policy, occurring at just the period when the rising states of Greece and Rome were shaping their institutions, was a most significant event. Egypt became the University of the Mediterranean nations. From this time forward Greek philoso- phers, as in the case of Pythagoras and of Plato, are represented as becoming pupils of the Egyptian priests ; and without question the learning and philosophy of the ancient Egyptians exerted a profound influence upon the quick, susceptible mind of the Hel- lenic race, that was, in its turn, to become the teacher of the world. The liberal policy of Psammetichus, while resulting in a great ad- vantage to foreign nations, brought a heavy misfortune upon his own. Displeased with the position assigned Greek mercenaries in the army, the native Egyptian soldiers revolted, and two hundred thousand of the troops seceding in a body, emigrated to Ethiopia, whence no inducement that Psammetichus offered could persuade them to return. The son of Psammetichus, Necho II. (612-596 b.c), the Pharaoh-Necho of the Bible, followed the liberal policy marked out by his father. To facilitate commerce, he attempted to re- open the old canal dug by Seti I. and his son, which had become unnavigable. After the loss of one hundred and twenty thousand workmen in the prosecution of the undertaking, Necho was con- 26 EGYPT, strained to abandon it ; Herodotus says, on account of an unfa- vorable oracle. Necho then fitted out an exploring expedition for the circum- navigation of Africa, in hope of finding a possible passage for his fleets from the Red Sea to the Nile by a water channel already opened by nature, and to which the priests and oracles could interpose no objections. The expedition, we have reason to be- lieve, actually accomplished the feat of sailing around the conti- nent; for Herodotus, in his account of the enterprise, says that the voyagers upon their return reported that, when they were rounding the cape, the sun was on their right hand (to the north). This feature of the report, which led Herodotus to disbelieve it, is to us the very strongest evidence possible that the voyage was really performed. The Last of the Pharaohs. — Before the close of his reign, Necho had come into colHsion with the king of Babylon, and was forced to acknowledge his supremacy. A little later, Babylon hav- ing yielded to the rising power of Persia, Egypt also passed under Persian authority (see p. 77). The Egyptians, however, were restive under this foreign yoke, and, after a little more than a cen- tury, succeeded in throwing it off; but the country was again sub- jugated by the Persian king Artaxerxes HI. (about 340 B.C.), and from that time until our own day no native prince has ever sat upon the throne of the Pharaohs. Long before the Persian con- quest, the Prophet Ezekiel, foretelling the debasement of Egypt, had declared, " There shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt." ^ Upon the extension of the power of the Macedonians over the East (333 B.C.), Egypt willingly exchanged masters ; and for three centuries the valley was the seat of the renowned Graeco-Egyptian Empire of the Ptolemies, which lasted until the Romans annexed the region to their all-absorbing empire (30 B.C.). "The mission of Egypt among the nations was fulfilled ; it had lit the torch of civilization in ages inconceivably remote, and had passed it on to other peoples of the West." 1 Ezek. XXX. 13. CLASSES OF SOCIETY. 27 2. Religion, Arts, and General Culture. Classes of Society. — Egyptian society was divided into three great classes, or orders, — priests, soldiers, and. common people ; the last embracing shepherds, husbandmen, and artisans. The sacerdotal order consisted of high-priests, prophets, scribes, keepers of the sacred robes and animals, sacred sculptors, masons, and embalmers. They enjoyed freedom from taxation, and met the expenses of the temple services with the income of the sacred lands, which embraced one third of the soil of the country. The priests were extremely scrupulous in the care of their per- sons. They bathed twice by day and twice by night, and shaved the entire body every third day. Their inner clothing was linen, woollen garments being thought unclean ; their diet was plain and even abstemious, in order that, as Plutarch says, " their bodies might sit light as possible about their souls." Next to the priesthood in rank and honor stood the military order. Like the priests, the soldiers formed a landed class. They held one third of the soil of Egypt. To each soldier was given a tract of about eight acres, exempt from all taxes. They were carefully trained in their profession, and there was no more effec- tive soldiery in ancient times than that which marched beneath the standard of the Pharaohs. The Chief Deities. — Attached to the chief temples of the Egyptians were colleges for the training of the sacerdotal order. These institutions were the repositories of the wisdom of the Egyptians. This learning was open only to the initiated few. The unity of God was the central doctrine in this private sys- tem. They gave to this Supreme Being the very same name by which he was known to the Hebrews — Nuk Pu Niik, " I am that I am." ^ The sacred manuscripts say, " He is the one living and 1 " It is evident what a new light this discovery throws on the sublime passage in Exodus iii. 14; where Moses, whom we may suppose to have been initiated into this formula, is sent both to his people and to Pharaoh to proclaim the true God by this very title, and to declare that the God of the 2S EGYPT. true God, . . . who has made all things, and was not himself made." The Egyptian divinities of the popular mythology were fre- quently grouped in triads. First in importance among these groups was that formed by Osiris, Isis (his wife and sister) , and Horus, their son. The members of this triad were worshipped through- out Egypt. The god Set (called Typhon by the Greek writers), the prin- ciple of evil, was the Satan of Egyptian mythology. While the good and beneficent Osiris was symbolized by the life-giving Nile, the malignant Typhon was emblemized by the terrors and barren- ness of the desert. MUMMY OF A SACRED BULL. (From a photograph.) Animal -Wor ship. —The Egyptians regarded certain animals as emblems of the gods, and hence worshipped them. To kill one of these sacred animals was adjudged the greatest impiety. Persons so unfortunate as to harm one through accident were sometimes murdered by the infuriated people. The destruction of a cat in a burning building was lamented more than the loss highest Egyptian theology was also the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. The case is parallel to that of Paul at Athens." — Smith's Ancient History of the East, p. 196, note. ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 29 of the property. Upon the death of a dog, every member of the family shaved his head. The scarabaeus, or beetle, was especially sacred, being considered an emblem of the sun, or of life. Not only were various animals held sacred, as being the emblems of certain deities, but some were thought to be real gods. Thus the soul of Osiris, it was imagined, animated the body of some bull, which might be known from certain spots and markings. Upon the death of the sacred bull, or Apis, as he was called, a great search, accompanied with loud lamentation, was made throughout the land for his successor : for, the moment the soul of Osiris departed from the dying bull, it entered a calf that moment born. The calf was always found with the proper markings ; but, as Wilkinson says, the young animal had probably been put to " much inconvenience and pain to make the marks and hair conform to his description." The body of the deceased Apis was carefully embalmed, and, amid funeral ceremonies of great expense and magnificence, deposited in the tomb of his predecessors. In 185 1, Mariette discovered this sepulchral chamber of the sacred bulls. It is a narrow gallery, two thousand feet in length, cut in the limestone cliffs just opposite the site of ancient Memphis. A large num- ber of the immense granite coffins, fifteen feet long and eight wide and high, have been brought to light. Many explanations have been given to account for the existence of such a debased form of worship among so cultured a people as were the ancient Egyptians. Probably the sacred animals in the later worship represent an earlier stage of the Egyptian religion, just as many superstitious beHefs and observances among ourselves are simply survivals from earlier and ruder times. Judgment of the Dead. ^ — Death was a great equalizer among the Egyptians. King and peasant alike must stand before the judgment-seat of Osiris and his forty-two assessors. This judgment of the soul in the other world was prefigured by a peculiar ordeal to which the body was subjected here. Between each chief city and the burial-place on the western edge of the 30 EGYPT. valley was a sacred lake, across which the body was borne in a barge. But, before admittance to the boat, it must pass the ordeal called " the judgment of the dead." This was a trial before a tribunal of forty-two judges, assembled upon the shore of the lake. Any person could bring accusations against the deceased, false charges being guarded against by the most dreadful penalties. If it appeared that the life of the deceased had been evil, passage to the boat was denied ; and the body was either carried home in dishonor, or, in case of the poor who could not afford to care for the mummy, was interred on the shores of the lake. Many mum- mies of those refused admission to the tombs of their fathers have been dug up along these " Stygian banks." JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD: above, an ape-assessor scourges an evil soul, that has been changed into an unclean animal, But this ordeal of the body was only a faint symbol of the dread tribunal of Osiris before which the soul must appear in the lower world. In one scale of a balance was placed the heart of the deceased ; in the other scale, an image of Justice, or Truth. The soul stands by watching the result, and, as the beam inclines, is either welcomed to the companionship of the good Osiris, or consigned to oblivion in the jaws of a frightful hippopotamus- headed monster, " the devourer of evil souls." This annihilation, however, is only the fate of those inveterately wicked. Those respecting whom hopes of reformation may be entertained are TOMBS. 31 condemned to return to earth and do penance in long cycles of lives in the bodies of various animals. This is what is known as the transmigration of souls. The kind of animals the soul should animate, and the length of its transmigrations, were determined by the nature of its sins. Tombs. — The Egyptians bestowed little care upon the tem- porary residences of the living, but the " eternal homes " of the dead were fitted up with the most lavish expenditure of labor. These were chambers, sometimes built of brick or stone, but more usually cut in the limestone cliffs that form the western rim of the Nile valley ; for that, as the land of the sunset, was conceived to be the realm of darkness and of death. The cHffs opposite the ancient Egyptian capitals are honeycombed with sepulchral cells. <^ 0WWl^, BRICK-MAKING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. (From Thebes.) In the hills back of Thebes is the so-called Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, the " Westminster Abbey of Egypt." Here are twenty-five magnificent sepulchres. These consist of extensive rock- cut passages and chambers richly sculptured and painted. The subjects of the decorations of many of the tombs, particu- larly of the oldest, are drawn from the life and manners of the times. Thus the artist has converted for us the Egyptian necrop- olis into a city of the living, where the Egypt of four thousand years ago seems to pass before our eyes. The Pyramids. — The Egyptian pyramids, the tombs of the earlier Pharaohs, are the most venerable monuments that have been preserved to us from the early world. They were almost all erected before the Twelfth Dynasty. Although thus standing 32 EGYPT. away back in the earliest twilight of the historic morning, never- theless they mark, not the beginning, but the perfection of Egyp- tian art. They speak of long periods of growth in art and science lying beyond the era they represent. It is this vast ard myste- rious background that astonishes us even more than these giant forms cast up against it. Being sepulchral monuments, the pyramids are con- fined to the western side of the Nile valley (see p. 31). There are over thirty still standing, with traces of about forty more. The Pyramid of Cheops, the largest of the Gizeh group, near Cairo, rises from a base cov- ering thirteen acres, to a height of four hundred and fifty feet. According to He- rodotus, Cheops employed one hun- dred thousand men for twenty years in its erection. Palaces and Temples. — The earlier Memphian kings built great unadorned pyramids, but the later Theban monarchs con- structed splendid palaces and temples. Two of the most promi- THE GREAT HALL OF COLUiVINS AT KARNAK. PALACES AND TEMPLES. 33 nent masses of buildings on the site of Thebes are called, the one the Palace of Karnak, and the other the Temple of Luxor, from the names of two native villages built near or within the ruined enclosures. The former was more than five hundred years in building. As an adjunct of the Palace at Karnak was a Hall of Columns, which consisted of a phalanx of one hundred and sixty-four gigan- tic pillars. Some of these columns measure over seventy feet in height, with capi- tals sixty-five feet in circumference. In Nubia, be- yond the First Cataract, is the renowned rock- hewn temple of Ipsambul, the front of which is adorned with four gigantic portrait- statues of Rame- ses II., seventy feet in height. This temple has been pronounced the greatest and grandest achievement of Egyptian art. Sculpture : Sphinxes and Colossi. — A strange immobility, due to the influence of religion, attached itself, at an early period, to Egyptian art. The artist, in the portrayal of the figures of the gods, was not allowed to change a single line in the conventional form. Hence the impossibility of improvement in sacred sculp- ture. Wilkinson says that Menes would have recognized the statue of Osiris in the Temple of Amasis. Plato complained that STATUES OF MEMNON AT THEBES. 34 , EGYPT. the pictures and statues in the temples in his day were no better than those made '' ten thousand years " before. The heroic, or colossal size of many of the Egyptian statues excites our admiration. The two colossi at Thebes, known as the " Statues of Memnon," are forty-seven feet high, and are hewn each from a single block of granite. The appearance of these time-worn, gigantic figures, upon the solitary plain, is singularly impressive. " There they sit together, yet apart, in the midst of the plain, serene and vigilant, still keeping their untired watch over the lapse of ages and the ecHpse of Egypt." One of these statues acquired a wide reputation among the Greeks and Romans, under the name of the ''Vocal Memnon." When the rays of the rising sun fell upon the colossus, it emitted low musical tones, which the Egyptians believed to be the greeting of the statue to the mother-sun.^ The Egyptian sphinxes were figures having a human head and the body of a lion, symbohzing intelligence and power. The most famous of the sphinxes of Egypt is the colossal figure at the base of the Great Pyramid, at Gizeh, sculptured, some think, by Menes, and others, by one of the kings of the Fourth Dynasty. The immense statue, cut out of the native rock, save the fore-legs, which are built of masonry, is ninety feet long ancl seventy feet high. " This huge, mutilated figure has an aston- ishing effect ; it seems like an eternal spectre. The stone phan- tom seems attentive ; one would say that it hears and sees. Its great ear appears to collect the sounds of the past ; its eyes, directed to the east, gaze, as it were, into the future ; its aspect has a depth, a truth of expression, irresistibly fascinating to the spectator. In this figure — half statue, half mountain — we see a wonderful majesty, a grand serenity, and even a sort of sweetness of expression." 1 It is probable that the musical notes were produced by the action of the sun upon the surface of the rock while wet with dew. The phenomenon was observed only while the upper part of the colossus, which was broken off by an earthquake, remained upon the ground. When the statue was restoi-ed, the music ceased. GLASS MANUFACTURE. 35 Glass Manufacture. — The manufacture of glass, a discovery usually attributed to the Phoenicians/ was carried on in Egypt more than four thousand years ago. The paintings of the monu- ments represent glass-blowers moulding all manner of articles. Glass bottles, and various other objects of the same material, are found in great numbers in the tombs. Some of these objects show that the ancient Egyptians were acquainted with processes of coloring glass that secured results which we have not yet been able to equal. The Egyptian artists imitated, with marvellous success, the variegated hues of insects and stones. The manufac- ture of precious gems, so like the natural stone as to defy detec- tion, was a lucrative profession. The Papyrus Paper. — The chief writing material used by the ancient Egyptians was the noted papyrus paper, manufactured from a reed which grew in the marshes and along the water- chan- nels of the Nile. From the Greek names of this Egyptian plant, byblos and papyrus, come our words "Bible " and "paper." The plant has now entirely disappeared from Egypt, and is found only on the Anapus, in the island of Sicily, and on a small stream near Jaffa, in Palestine. Long before the plant became extinct in Egypt an ancient prophecy had declared, " The paper reeds by the brooks . . . shall wither, be driven away, and be no more." (Isa. xix. 7.) The costly nature of the papyrus paper led to the use of many substitutes for writing purposes — as leather, broken pottery, tiles, stones, and wooden tablets. Forms of Writing. — The Egyptians employed three forms of writing : the hieroglyphical, consisting of rude pictures of material objects, usually employed in monumental inscriptions ; the hie- ratic, an abbreviated or rather simplified form of the hieroglyphi- cal, adapted to writing, and forming the greater part of the papyrus manuscripts ; and the demotic, or encorial, a still simpler form than the hieratic. The last did not come into use till about the seventh 1 The Phoenicians, being the carriers of antiquity, often received credit among the peoples with whom they traded, for various inventions and discov- eries of which they were simply the disseminators. 36 EGYPT. century b.c, and was then used for all ordinary documents, both of a civil and commercial nature. It could be written eight or ten times as fast as the hieroglyphical form. Key to Egyptian Writing. — The key to the Egyptian writing was discovered by means of the Rosetta Stone. This valuable relic, a heavy block of black basalt, is now in the British Museum. It holds an inscription, written in hieroglyphic, in demotic, and in Greek characters. Champollion, a French scholar, by com- paring the characters composing the words Ptolemy, Alexander, and other names in the parallel inscriptions, discovered the value of several of the symbols ; and thus were opened the vast libraries of Egyptian learning. We have now the Ritual, or Book, of the Dead, a sort of guide to the soul in its journey through the underworld ; romances, and fairy tales, among which is "Cinderella and the Glass Slipper" ; autobiographies, letters, fables, and epics ; treatises on medicine, astronomy, and various other scientific subjects ; and books on history — in prose and verse — which fully justify the declaration of the Egyptian priests to Solon : " You Greeks are mere children, talkative and vain ; you know nothing at all of the past." Astronomy, Geometry, and Arithmetic. — The cloudless and brilliant skies of Egypt invited the inhabitants of the Nile valley to the study of the heavenly bodies. And another circumstance closely related to their very existence, the inundation of the Nile, following the changing cycles of the stars, could not but have in- cited them to the watching and predicting of astronomical move- ments. Their observations led them to discover the length, very nearly, of the sidereal year, which they made to consist of 365 days, every fourth year adding one day, making the number for that year 366. They also divided the year into twelve months of thirty days each, adding five days to complete the year. This was the calendar that Julius Csesar introduced into the Roman Empire, and which, slightly reformed by Pope Gregory XIII. in 1582, has been the system employed by almost all the civilized world up to the present day. MEDICINE AND THE ART OF EMBALMING. 37 The Greeks accounted for the early rise of the science of geome- try among the Egyptians by reference to the necessity they were under each year of re-estabhshing the boundaries of their fields — the inundation obliterating old landmarks and divisions. The science thus forced upon their attention was cultivated with zeal and success. A single papyrus has been discovered that holds twelve geometrical theorems. Arithmetic was necessarily brought into requisition in solving astronomical and geometrical problems. We ourselves are debtors to the ancient Egyptians for much of our mathematical knowledge, which has come to us from the banks of the Nile, through the Greeks and the Saracens. Medicine and the Art of Embalming. — The custom of em- balming the dead, affording opportunities for the examination of the body, without doubt had a great influence upon the develop- ment of the sciences of anatomy and medicine among the Egyp- tians. That the embalmers were physicians, we know from various testimonies. Thus we are told in the Bible that Joseph " com- manded the physicians to embalm his father." The Egyptian doctors had a very great reputation among the ancients. Every doctor was a specialist, and was not allowed to take charge of cases outside of his own branch. As the artist was for- bidden to change the lines of the sacred statues, so the physician was not permitted to treat cases save in the manner prescribed by the customs of the past ; and if he were so presumptuous as to depart from the estabhshed mode of treatment, and the patient died, he was adjudged guilty of murder. Many drugs and medi- cines were used ; the ciphers, or characters, employed by modern apothecaries to designate grains and drams are of Egyptian in- vention. The Egyptians believed that after a long lapse of time, several thousand years, the departed soul would return to earth and reani- mate its former body ; hence their custom of preserving the body by means of embalmment. In the processes of embalming, the physicians made use of oils, resin, bitumen, and various aromatic 38 EGYPT. gums. The body was swathed in bandages of hnen, while the face was sometimes gilded, or covered with a gold mask. As this, which was the "most approved method" of embalming, was very costly, the expense being equivalent probably to $1000 of our money, the bodies of the poorer classes were simply " salted and dried," wrapped in coarse mats, and laid in tiers in great trenches in the desert sands. PROFILE OF RAMESES 1!. (From a photograph of the mummy.) Only a few years ago (in 1881) the mummies of Thothmes III., Seti I., and Rameses II., together with those of nearly all of the other Pharaohs of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-first Dynasties, were found in a secret cave near Thebes. THE ART OF EMBALMING. 39 It seems that, some time in the 12th century B.C., a sudden alarm caused these bodies to be taken hastily from the royal tombs of which we have spoken (see p. 31), and secreted in this hidden chamber. When the danger had passed, the place of concealment had evidently been forgotten ; so the bodies were never restored to their ancient tombs, but remained in this secret cavern to be discovered in our own day. The mummies were taken to the Boulak Museum, at Cairo, where they were identified by means of the inscriptions upon the cases and wrappings. Among others the body of Seti I. and that of Rameses 11. were unbandaged (1886), so that now we may look upon the faces of the greatest and most renowned of the Pharaohs. The faces of both Seti and Rameses are so remarkably preserved, that "were their subjects to return to earth to-day they could not fail to recognize their old sovereigns." Both are strong faces, of Semitic cast, that of Rameses bearing a striking resemblance to that of his father Seti, and both closely resembling their portrait statues and profiles. Professor Maspero, the direc- tor-general of the excavations and antiquities of Egypt, in his official report of the uncovering of the mummies, writes as follows of the appearance of the face of Rameses : " The face of the mummy gives a fair idea of the face of the living king. The expression is unintellectual, perhaps slightly animal ; but even under the somewl^at grotesque disguise of mummification, there is plainly to be seen an air of sovereign majesty, of resolve, and of pride." ^ 1 On the finding and identification of the Pharaohs, consult two excellent articles in 77/,? Century Magazine for May, 1887. 40 CHALD^A, CHAPTER III. CHALD^A. I. Political History. Basin of the Tigris and Euphrates. — The northern part of the Tigris and Euphrates valley, the portion that comprised ancient Assyria, consists of undulating plains, broken in places by con- siderable mountain ridges. But all the southern portion of the basin, the part known as Chaldaea, or Babylonia, having been formed by the gradual en- croachment of the deposits of the Tigris and Euphrates upon the waters of the Persian Gulf, is as level as the sea. During a large part of the year, rains are infrequent ; hence agriculture is depend- ent mainly upon artificial irrigation. The distribution of the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates was secured, in ancient times, by a stupendous system of canals and irrigants, which, at the present day, in a sand-choked and ruined condition, spread like a perfect network over the face of the country (see cut, p. 41). The productions of Babylonia are very like those of the Nile valley. The luxuriant growth of grain upon these alluvial flats excited the wonder of all the Greek travellers who visited the East, Herodotus will not tell the whole truth, for fear his veracity may be doubted. The soil is as fertile now as in the time of the histo- rian ; but owing to the neglect of the ancient canals, the greater part of this once populous district has been converted into alter- nating areas of marsh and desert. The Three Great Monarchies. — Within the Tigris-Euphrates basin, three great empires — the Chaldaean, the Assyrian, and the Babylonian — successively rose to prominence and dominion. Each, in turn, not only extended its authority over the valley, but A MIXED PEOPLE. 41 also made the power of its arms felt throughout the adjoining regions. We shall now trace the rise and the varied fortunes of these empires, and the slow growth of the arts and sciences from rude beginnings among the early Chaldseans to their fuller and richer development under the Assyrian and Babylonian monarchies. The Chaldaeans a Mixed People. — In the earliest times Lower Chaldaea was known as Shumir, the Shinar of the Bible, while Upper Chaldaea bore the name of Accad. The original inhabi- tants of Chaldaea were of Turanian race, and are called Accadians. ANCIENT BABYLONIAN CANALS. These people laid the basis of civilization in the Euphrates valley, so that with them the history of Asian culture begins. They brought with them into the valley the art of hieroglyphical writing, which later developed into the well-known cuneiform system. They also had quite an extensive Hterature, and had made considerable advance in the art of building. The civilization of the Accadians was given a great impulse by the arrival of a Semitic people. These foreigners were nomadic in habits, and altogether much less cultured than the Accadians. 42 CHALD^A. Gradually, however, they adopted the arts and literature of the people among whom they had settled ; yet they retained their own language, which in the course of time superseded the less perfect Turanian speech of the original inhabitants ; consequently the mixed people, known later as Chaldseans, that arose from the blending of the two races, spoke a language essentially the same as that used by their northern neighbors, the Semitic Assyrians. Sargon (Sharrukin) I. (3800? e.g.). — We know scarcely anything about the political affairs of the Accadians until after the arrival of the Semites. Then, powerful kings, sometimes of Se- mitic and then again of Turanian, or Accadian origin, appear ruling in the cities of Accad and Shumir, and the political history of Chaldaea begins. The first prominent monarch is called Sargon I. (Sharrukin), a Semitic king of Agade, one of the great early cities. An inscrip- tion recently deciphered makes this king to have reigned as early as 3800 B.C. He appears to have been the first great organizer of the peoples of the Chaldsean plains. Yet not as a warrior, but as a patron and protector of letters, is Sargon's name destined to a sure place in history. He classified and translated into the Semitic, or Assyrian tongue the religious, mythological, and astronomical literature of the Accadians, and deposited the books in great libraries, which he estabhshed or enlarged, — the oldest and most valuable libraries of the ancient world. The scholar Sayce calls him the Chaldsean Solomon. Conquest of Chaldaea by the Elamites (2286 b.c). — While the Chaldaean kings were ruling in the great cities of Lower Baby- lonia, the princes of the Elamites, a people of Turanian race, were setting up a rival kingdom to the northeast, just at the foot of the hills of Persia. In the year 2286 B.C., a king of Elam, Kudur-Nakhunta by name, overran Chaldaea, took all the cities founded by Sargon and his successors, and from the temples bore off in triumph to his capital, Susa, the statues of the Chaldaean gods, and set up in these lowland regions what is known as the Elamite Dynasty. 3S 45 &^^' ■/S TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES REGION. \?^ 3J 40 45 CHALDyEA ECLIPSED BY ASSYRIA. 43 More than sixteen hundred years after this despoiling of the Chaldsean sanctuaries, a king of Nineveh captured the city of Susa, and finding there these stolen statues, caused them to be restored to their original temples. The Chedorlaomer of Genesis, whose contact with the history of the Jewish patriarch Abraham has caused his name to be handed down to our own times in the records of the Hebrew people, is believed to have been the son and successor of Kudur- Nakhunta. Chaldaea eclipsed by Assyria. — After the Elamite princes had maintained a more or less perfect dominion over the cities of Chaldaea for two or three centuries, their power seems to have declined ; and then for several centuries longer, down to about 1300 B.C., dynasties and kings of which we know very Httle as yet, ruled the country. During this period, Babylon, gradually rising into prominence, overshadowed the more ancient Accadian cities, and became the leading city of the land. From it the whole country was destined, later, to draw the name by which it is best known — Babylonia. Meanwhile a Semitic power had been slowly developing in the north. This was the Assyrian empire, the later heart and centre of which was the great city of Nineveh. For a long time Assyria was simply a province or dependency of the lower kingdom ; but about 1300 B.C., the Assyrian monarch Tiglathi-nin conquered Babylonia, and Assyria assumed the place that had been so long held by Chaldaea. From this time on to the fall of Nineveh in 606 B.C., the monarchs of this country virtually controlled the affairs of Western Asia. 2. Arts and General Culture. Tower-Temples. — In the art of building, the Chald^eans, though their edifices fall far short of attaining the perfection exhibited by the earliest Egyptian structures, displayed no inconsiderable archi- tectural knowledge and skill. 44 CHALD^A. The most important of their constructions were their tower- temples. These were simple in plan, consisting of two or three, terraces, or stages, placed one upon another so as to form a sort of rude pyramid. The material used in their construction was chiefly sun-dried brick. The edifice was sometimes protected by outer courses of burnt brick. The temple proper surmounted the upper platform. All these tower-temples have crumbled into vast mounds, with only here and there a projecting mass of masonry to distinguish them from natural hills, for which they were at first mistaken. Cuneiform Writing. — We have already mentioned the fact that the Accadians, when they entered the Euphrates valley, were in possession of a system of writing. This was a simple pictorial, or hieroglyphical system, which they gradually developed into the cuneiform. In the cuneiform system, the characters, instead of being formed of unbroken lines, are composed of wedge-like marks ; hence the name (from ameus, a wedge). This form, according to the scholar Sayce, arose when the Accadians, having entered the low country, substituted tablets of clay for the papyrus or other similar material which they had formerly used. The characters were im- pressed upon the soft tablet by means of a triangular writing- instrument, which gave them their peculiar wedge-shaped form. The cuneiform mode of writing, improved and simplified by the Assyrians and the Persians, was in use about two thousand years, being employed by the nations in and near the Euphrates basin, down to the time of the conquest of the East by the Macedonians. Books and Libraries. — The books of the Chaldseans were composed of clay tablets, varying in length from one inch to twelve inches, and being about one inch thick. Those holding records of special importance, after having been once written over and baked, were covered with a thin coating of clay, and then the matter was written in duplicate and the tablets again baked. If the outer writing were defaced by accident or altered by design, the removal of the outer coating would at once show the true text. THE RELIGION. 45 The tablets were carefully preserved in great public libraries. Even during the Turanian period, before the Semites had entered the land, one or more of these collec- tions existed in each of the chief cities of Accad and Shumir. '' Accad," says Sayce, " was the China of Asia. Almost every one could read and write." Erech was especially renowned for its great library, and was known as " the City of Books." The Religion. — The x\ccadian re- ligion, as revealed by the tablets, was essentially the same as that held to- day by the nomadic Turanian tribes of Northern Asia — what is known as Shamanism. It consisted in a behef in good and evil spirits, of which the latter held by far the most prominent place. To avert the malign influence of these wicked spirits, the Accadians had resort to charms and magic rites. The religion of the Semites was a form of Sabasanism, — that is, a worship of the heavenly bodies, — in which the sun was naturally the central object of adoration. When the Accadians and the Semites intermingled, their re- ligious systems blended to form one of the most influential relig- ions of the world — one which spread far and wide under the form of Baal worship. There were in the perfected system twelve primary gods, at whose head stood II, or Ra. Besides these great divinities, there were numerous lesser and local deities. There were features of this old Chaldaean religion which were destined to exert a wide-spread and potent influence upon the minds of men. Out of the Sabsean Semitic element grew astrology, the pretended art of forecasting events by the aspect of the stars, which was most elaborately and ingeniously developed, until the fame of the Chaldaean astrologers was spread throughout the CHALD/EAN TABLET. 46 CHALD^A. ancient world, while the spell of that art held in thraldom the mind of mediaeval Europe. Out of the Shamanistic element contributed by the Turanian Accadians, grew a system of magic and divination which had a most profound influence not only upon all the Eastern nations, including the Jews, but also upon the later peoples of the West. Mediaeval magic and witchcraft were, in large part, an unchanged inheritance from Chaldaea. The Chaldsean Genesis. — The cosmological myths of the Chal- daeans, that is, their stories of the origin of things, are remarkably like the first chapters of Genesis. CHALD/EAN TABLET WITH PARTS OF THE DELUGE LEGEND. The discoveries and patient labors of various scholars have re- produced, in a more or less perfect form, from the legendary tablets, the Chaldaean account of the Creation of the World, of an ancestral Paradise and the Tree of Life with its angel guardians, of the Deluge, and of the Tower of Babel.^ The Chaldaean Epic of Izdubar. — Beside their cosmological 1 Consult especially George Smith's The ChaldLean Accotint of Genesis ; see also Records of the Past, Vol. VII. pp. 127, 131. THE CHALDEAN EPIC OF IZDUBAR. 47 myths, the Chaldaeans had a vast number of so-called heroic and nature myths. The most noted of these form what is known as the Epic of Izdubar (Nimrod?), which is doubtless the oldest epic of the race. This is in twelve parts, and is really a solar myth, which recounts the twelve labors of the sun in his yearly passage through the twelve signs of the Chaldsean zodiac. This epic was carried to the West, by the way of Phoenicia and Asia Minor, and played a great part in the mythology of the Greeks and Romans. "The twelve labors of Heracles may be traced back to the adventures of Gisdhubar [Izdubar] as recorded in the twelve books of the great epic of Chaldgea." (Sayce.) Science. — In astronomy and arithmetic the Chaldaeans made substantial progress. The clear sky and unbroken horizon of the Chaldsean plains, lending an unusually brilliant aspect to the heavens, naturally led the Chaldseans to the study of the stars. They early divided the zodiac into twelve signs, and named the zodiacal constellations, a memorial of their astronomical attain- ments which will remain forever inscribed upon the great circle of the heavens ; they foretold eclipses, constructed sun-dials of vari- ous patterns, divided the year into twelve months, and the day and night into twelve hours each, and invented or devised the week of seven days, the number of days in the week being deter- mined by the course of the moon. "The 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st, and 28th days of the lunar month were kept like the Jewish Sab- bath, and were actually so named in Assyria." In arithmetic, also, the Chaldseans made considerable advance. A tablet has been found which contains the squares and cubes of the numbers from one to sixty. Conclusion. — This hasty glance at the beginnings of civiliza- tion among the primitive peoples of the Euphrates valley, will serve to give us at least some little idea of how much modern cul- ture owes to the old Chaldaeans. We may say that Chaldaea was one of the main sources — Egypt was the other — of the stream of universal history. 48 ASSYRIA, CHAPTER IV. ASSYRIA. I . Political History. Tiglath-Pileser I. (1130-1110 b.c). — It is not until about two centuries after the conquest of Chaldsea by the iVssyrian prince Tiglathi-Nin (see p. 43), that we find a sovereign of renown at the head of Assyrian affairs. This was Tiglath-Pileser I., who came to the throne about 11 30 b.c. The royal records detail at great length his numerous war expeditions, and describe minutely the great temples which he constructed. For the two centuries following the reign of Tiglath-Pileser, Assyria is quite lost to history ; then it is again raised into prom- inence by two or three strong kings ; after which it once more almost " drops below the historical horizon." Tiglath-Pileser II. (745-727 b.c). — With this king, who was a usurper, begins what is known as the Second Empire. He was a man of great energy and of undoubted mihtary talent, — for by him the Assyrian power was once more extended over the greater part of Southwestern Asia. But what renders the reign of this king a landmark in Assyrian history, is the fact that he was not a mere conqueror like his pred- ecessors, but a political organizer of great capacity. He laid the basis of the power and glory of the great kings who followed him upon the Assyrian throne. Sargon (722-705 b.c). — Sargon was one of the greatest con- querors and builders of the Second Empire. In 722 B.C., he took Samaria and carried away the Ten Tribes into captivity beyond the Tigris. The larger part of the captives were scattered among the Median towns, where they became so mingled with the native SENNACHERIB. 49 population as to be inquired after even to this day as the " lost tribes." During this reign the Egyptians and their allies, in the first en- counter (the battle of Raphia, 720 b.c.) between the empires of the Euphrates and the Nile valley, suffered a severe defeat, and the ancient kingdom of the Pharaohs became tributary to As- syria. Sargon was a famous builder. Near the foot of the Persian hills he founded a large city, which he named for himself; and there he erected a royal residence, described in the inscriptions as " a palace of incomparable magnificence," the site of which is now preserved by the vast mounds of Khorsabad. Sennacherib (705-681 b.c). — Sennacherib, the son of Sargon, came to the throne 705 B.C. We must accord to him the first place of renown among all the great names of the Assyrian Em- pire. His name, connected as it is with the story of the Jews, and with many of the most wonderful discoveries among the ruined palaces of Nineveh, has become as famiUar to the ear as that of Nebuchadnezzar in the story of Babylon. The fulness of the royal inscriptions of this reign enables us to permit Sennacherib to tell us in his own words of his great works and military expeditions. Respecting the decoration of Nineveh, he says : " I raised again all the edifices of Nineveh, my royal city ; I reconstructed all its old streets, and widened those that were too narrow. I have made the whole town a city shining like the sun." Concerning an expedition against Hezekiah, king of Judah, he says : " I took forty-six of his strong fenced cities ; and of the smaller towns which were scattered about I took and plundered a countless number. And from these places I captured and carried off as spoil 200,150 people, old and young, male and female, to- gether with horses and mares, asses and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude. And Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jeru- salem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round 50 ASSYJilA. the city to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape." ^ While Sennacherib was besieging Jerusalem, the king of Egypt appeareci in the field in the south with aid for Hezekiah. This caused Sennacherib to draw off his forces from the siege to meet the new enemy ; but near the frontiers of Egypt the Assyrian host, according to the Hebrew account, was smitten by " the angel of the Lord," ^ and the king returned with a shattered army and with- out glory to his capital, Nineveh. Sennacherib employed the closing years of his reign in the dig- ging of canals, and in the erection of a splendid palace at Nineveh. He was finally murdered by his own sons. SIEGE OF A CITY, SHOWING USE OF BATTERING-RAM. (From Nimrud.) Asshur-bani-pal (668-626? b.c). — This king, the Sardanapa- lus of the Greeks, is distinguished for his magnificent patronage of art and literature. During his reign Assyria enjoyed her Augustan age. But Asshur-bani-pal was also possessed of a warlike spirit. He 1 Rawlinson's Ajtcieni Monarchies, Vol. II. p. i6i. 2 This expression is a Hebraism, meaning often any physical cause of de- struction, as a plague or storm. In the present case, the destroying agency was probably a pestilence. ESARHADDON 11. 51 broke to pieces, with terrible energy, in swift campaigns, the en- emies of his empire. All the scenes of his sieges and battles he caused to be sculptured on the walls of his palace at Nineveh. These pictured panels are now in the British Museum. They are a perfect Iliad in stone. Saracus, or Esarhaddon II. (?-6o6 b.c). — Saracus was the last of the long line of Assyrian kings. His reign was filled with misfortunes for himself and his kingdom. For nearly or quite seven centuries the Ninevite kings had lorded it over the East. There was scarcely a state in all Western Asia that had not, during this time, felt the weight of their conquering arms ; scarcely a people that had not suffered their cruel punishments, or tasted the bitter- ness of their servitude. But now swift misfortunes were bearing down upon the oppressor from every quarter. The Scythian hordes, breaking through the mountain gates on the north, spread a new terror throughout the upper Assyrian provinces ; from the mountain defiles on the east issued the armies of the recent-grown empire of the Aryan Medes, led by the renowned Cyaxares ; from the southern lowlands, anx- ious to aid in the overthrow of the hated oppressor, the Baby- lonians, led by the youthful Nebuchadnezzar, the son of the traitor viceroy Nabopolassar, joined, it appears, the Medes as allies, and together they laid close siege to the Assyrian capital. The operations of the besiegers seem to have been aided by an unusual inundation of the Tigris, which undermined a section of the city walls. At all events the place was taken, and dominion passed away forever from the proud capital^ (606 B.C.). Two hundred years later, when Xenophon with his Ten Thousand Greeks, in his memorable retreat (see p. 156), passed the spot, the once great city was a crumbling mass of ruins, of which he could not even learn the name. 1 Saracus, in his despair, is said to have erected a funeral pyre within one of the courts of his palace, and, mounting the pile with the members of his family, to have perished with there in the flames; but this is doubtless a poeti- cal embellishment of the story. 5Z ASSYRIA. 2. Religion, Arts, and General Culture. Religion. — The Assyrians were Semites, and as such they possessed the deep rehgious spirit that has ahvays distinguished the peoples of this family. In this respect they were very much like the Hebrews. The wars which the Assyrian monarchs waged were not alone wars of conquest, but were, in a certain sense, cru- sades made for the purpose of extending the worship and author- ity of the gods of Assyria. They have been likened to the wars of the Hebrew kings, and again to the conquests of the Saracens. As with the wars, so was it with the architectural works of these sovereigns. Greater attention, indeed, was paid to the palace in Assyria than in Babylonia ; yet the inscriptions, as well as the ruins, of the upper country attest that the erection and adornment of the temples of the gods were matters of anxious and constant care on the part of the Assyrian monarchs. Their accounts of the construction and dedication of temples for their gods afford striking parallels to the Bible account of the building of the temple at Jerusalem by King Solomon. Not less promi- nently manifested is the religious spirit of these kings in what we may call their sacred litera- ture, which is filled with prayers singu- larly like those of the Old Testament. As to the Assyrian deities and their wor- ship, these were in all their essential characteristics so similar to those of the later Chaldaean system, already described (see p. 45), that any detailed account of them here is unnecessary. One differ- ence, however, in the two systems should be noted. The place EMBLEM OF ASSHUR. CRUELTY OF THE ASSYRL4NS. :>:> occupied by II, or Ra, as the head of the Chaldaean deities, is in Assyria given to the national god Asshiir, whose emblem was a winged circle with the figure of a man within, the whole perhaps symbolizing, according to Rawlinson, eternity, omnipres- ence, and wisdom. Cruelty of the Assyrians. — The Assyrians have been called the " Romans of Asia." They were a proud, martial, cruel, and unrelenting race. Although possessing, as we have just noticed, a deep and genuine religious feeling, still the Assyrian monarchs often displayed in their treatment of prisoners the disposition of savages. In common with most Asiatics, they had no respect for the body, but subjected captives to the most terrible mutilations. The sculptured marbles taken from the palaces exhibit the cruel ASSYRIANS FLAYING THEIR PRISONERS ALIVE. tortures inflicted upon prisoners ; kings are being led before their conqueror by means of hooks thrust through one or both lips ; ^ other prisoners are being flayed alive ; the eyes of some are being bored out with the point of a spear ; and still others are having their tongues torn out. An inscription by Asshur-nasir-pal, found in one of the palaces at Nimrud, runs as follows : " Their men, young and old, I took prisoners. Of some I cut off the feet and hands ; of others I cut off the noses, ears, and lips ; of the young men's ears I made a 1 See 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10-13 (Revised Version). 54 ASSYRIA. heap ; of the old men's heads I built a tower. I exposed their heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male children and the female children I burned in the flames." Royal Sports. — The Assyrian king gloried in being, like the great Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord." The monu- ments are covered with sculptures that represent the king engaged in the favorite royal sport. Asshur-izer-pal had at Nineveh a men- agerie, or hunting-park, filled with various animals, many of which were sent him as tribute by vassal princes. LION HUNT. (From Nineveh.) Remains of Assyrian Cities. — Enormous grass-grown mounds, enclosed by crumbled ramparts, alone mark the sites of the great cities of the Assyrian kings. The character of the remains arises from the nature of the building material. City walls, palaces, and temples were constructed chiefly of sun-dried bricks, so that the generation that raised them had scarcely passed away before they began to sink down into heaps of rubbish. The rains of many centuries have beaten down and deeply furrowed these mounds, while the grass has crept over them and made green alike the palaces of the kings and the temples of the gods.^ 1 Lying upon the left bank of the Upper Tigris ai?e two enormous mounds surrounded by heavy earthen ramparts, about eight miles in circuit. This is the site of ancient Nineveh, the immense enclosing ridges being the ruined city walls. These ramparts are still, in their crumbled condition, about fifty feet PALACE-MOUNDS AND PALACES. 55 Palace-Mounds and Palaces. — In order to give a certain dig- nity to the royal residence, to secure the fresh breezes, and to ren- der them more easily defended, the Assyrians, as well as the Baby- lonians and the Persians, built their palaces upon lofty artificial terraces, or platforms. These eminences, which appear like natural, flat-topped hills, were constructed with an almost incredible expen- diture of human labor. The great palace-mound at Nineveh, called by the natives Koyunjik, covers an area of one hundred acres, and RESTORATION OF A COURT IN SARGON'S PALACE AT KHORSABAD. (After Fergusson.) is from seventy to ninety feet high. Out of the material compos- ing it could be built four pyramids as large as that of Cheops. Upon this mound stood several of the most splendid palaces of the Ninevite kings. The group of buildings constituting the royal residence was high, and average about one hundred and fifty in width. The lower part of the wall was constructed of solid stone masonry; the upper portion of dried brick. This upper and frailer part, crumbling into earth, has completely buried the stone basement. The Turks of to-day quarry the stone from these old walls for their buildings. 56 ASSYRIA. often of enormous extent ; the various courts, halls, corridors, and chambers of the Palace of Sennacherib, which surmounted the great platform at Nineveh, covered an area of over ten acres. The palaces were usually one-storied. The walls, constructed chiefly of dried brick, were immensely thick and heavy. The rooms and galleries were plastered with stucco, or panelled with precious woods, or hned with enamelled bricks. The main halls, however, and the great open courts were faced with slabs of alabaster, covered with sculptures and inscriptions, the illustrated narrative of the wars and labors of the monarch. There were two miles of such sculptured panelling at Koyunjik. At the portals of the palace, to guard the approach, were stationed the colossal human-headed bulls. SCULPTURES FROM A GATEWAY AT KHORSABAD. An important adjunct of the palace was the temple, a copy of the tower-temples of the Chaldaeans. Its position is marked at present by a lofty conical mound rising amidst and overlooking the palace ruins. Upon the decay of the Assyrian palaces, the material forming the upper part of the thick walls completely buried and protected all the lower portion of the structure. In this way their sculptures and inscriptions have been preserved through so many centuries, till brought to light by the recent excavations of French and English antiquarians. rilK ROYAL LIBRARY. 57 The Royal Library at Nineveh. — Within the palace of Asshur- bani-pal at Nineveh, Layard discovered what is known as the Royal Library. There were two chambers, the floors of which were heaped with books, like the Chaldaean tablets already de- scribed. The number of books in the collection has been esti- mated at ten thousand. The writing upon some of the tablets is so minute that it cannot be read without the aid of a magnifying glass. We learn from the inscriptions that a librarian had charge of the collection. Catalogues of the books have been found, made out on clay tablets. The library was open to the public, for an inscription says, " I [Asshur-bani-pal] wrote upon the tablets ; I placed them in my palace for the instruction of my people." Asshur-bani-pal, as we have already learned, was the Augustus of Assyria. It was under his patronage and direction that most of the books were prepared and placed in the Ninevite collection. The greater part of these were copies of older Chaldaean tablets ; for the literature of the Assyrians, as well as their arts and sciences, was borrowed almost in a body from the Chaldaeans. All the old libraries of the low country were ransacked, and copies of their tablets made for the Royal Library at Nineveh. Rare treasures were secured from the libraries founded or enlarged by Sargon of Agade (see p. 42). In this way was preserved the most valuable portion of the early Chaldaean literature, which would otherwise have been lost to the world. The tablets embrace a great variety of subjects ; the larger part, however, are lexicons and treatises on grammar, and various other works intended as text-books for scholars. Perhaps the most curious of the tablets yet found are notes issued by the govern- ment, and made redeemable in gold and silver on presentation at the king's treasury. From one part of the library, which seems to have been the archives proper, were taken copies of treaties, reports of officers of the government, deeds, wills, mortgages, and contracts. One tablet, known as "^ the Will of Sennacherib," conveys to certain priests some personal property to be held in trust for one of his sons. This is the oldest will in existence. 58 BABYLONIA. CHAPTER V. BABYLONIA. Babylonian Affairs from 1300 to 625 B.C. — During the six centuries and more that intervened between the conquest of the old Chaldsean monarchy by the Assyrian king Tiglathi-Nin and the successful revolt of the low countries under Nabopolassar (see pp. 43, 51), the Babylonian peoples bore the Assyrian yoke very impatiently. Again and again they made violent efforts to throw it off; and in several instances they succeeded, and for a time enjoyed home rulers. But for the most part the whole country as far as the " Sea," as the Persian Gulf is called in the inscriptions, was a dependency of the great overshadov/ing empire of the north. Nabopolassar (625-604 b.c). — Nabopolassar was the first king of what is called the New Babylonian Monarchy. When troubles and misfortunes began to thicken about the last Assyrian king, Saracus, he intrusted to the care of Nabopolassar, as his viceroy, the towns and provinces of the South. The chance now presented of obtaining a crown proved too great a temptation for the satrap's fidelity to his master. He revolted and became independent (625 b.c). Later, he entered into an alliance with the Median king, Cyaxares, against his former sovereign (see p. 51). Through the overthrow of Nineveh and the break-up of the Assyrian Empire, the new Babylonian kingdom received large accessions of territory. Nebuchadnezzar (604-561 b.c). — Nabopolassar was followed by his renowned son Nebuchadnezzar, whose oppressive wars and gigantic architectural works rendered Babylon at once the scourge and the wonder of the ancient world. Jerusalem, having repeatedly revolted, was finally taken and sacked. The temple was stripped of its sacred vessels of silver NABOPOLASSAR. 59 and gold, which were carried away to Babylon, and the temple itself with the adjoining palace was given to the flames ; the people, save a miserable remnant, were also borne away into the " Great Captivity" (586 B.C.). With Jerusalem subdued, Nebuchadnezzar pushed with all his forces the siege of the Phoenician city of Tyre, whose investment had been commenced several years before. In striking language the prophet Ezekiel (ch. xxix. 18) describes the length and hardness of the siege : " Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled." After a siege of thirteen years, the city seems to have fallen into the hands of the Babylonian king, and his authority was now undisputed from the Zagros Mountains to the Mediterranean. The numerous captives of his many wars, embracing peoples of almost every nation in Western Asia, enabled Nebuchadnezzar to rival even the Pharaohs in the execution of enormous works re- quiring an immense expenditure of human labor. Among his works were the Great Palace in the royal quarter of the city ; the celebrated Hanging Gardens ; and gigantic reservoirs, canals, and various engineering works, embracing a vast system of irrigation that reached every part of Babylonia. In addition to all these works, the indefatigable monarch seems to have either rebuilt or repaired almost every city and temple throughout the entire country. There are said to be at least a hundred sites in the tract immediately about Babylon which give evidence, by inscribed bricks bearing his legend, of the marvellous activity and energy of this monarch. In the midst of all these gigantic undertakings, surrounded by a brilliant court of councillors and flatterers, the reason of the king was suddenly and mysteriously clouded.^ After a period the cloud ^ " Nebuchadnezzar fell a victim to that mental aberration which has often proved the penalty of despotism, but in the strange and degrading form to which physicians have given the name of lycanthropy ; in which the patient, fancying himself a beast, rejects clothing and ordinary food, and even (as in this case) the shelter of a roof, ceases to use articulate speech, and sometimes persists in going on all-fours." — Smith's Ancient History of the East, p. 357. 60 BABYLONIA. passed away, " the glory of his kingdom, his honor, and bright- ness returned unto him." But it was the splendor of the evening ; for the old monarch soon after died at the age of eighty, worn out by the toils and cares of a reign of forty-three years, the longest, most memorable, and instructive in the annals of the Babylonian or Assyrian kings. The Fall of Babylon. — In 555 b.c, Nabonadius, the last king of Babylon, began his reign. He seems to have associated with himself in the government his son Belshazzar, who shared with his father the duties and honors of royalty, apparently on terms of equal co-sovereignty. . To the east of the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates, beyond the ranges of the Zagros, there had been growing up an Aryan kingdom, the Medo-Persian, which, at the time now reached by us, had excited by its aggressive spirit the alarm of all the nations of Western Asia. For purposes of mutual defence, the king of Babylon, and Croesus, the well-known monarch of Lydia, a state of Asia Minor, formed an alliance against Cyrus, the strong and ambitious sovereign of the Medes and Persians. This league awakened the resentment of Cyrus, and, after punishing Croesus and depriving him of his kingdom (see p. 75), he collected his forces to chastise the Babylonian king. Anticipating the attack, Nabonadius had strengthened the de- fences of Babylon, and stationed around it supporting armies. But he was able to avert the fatal blow for only a few years. Risking a battle in the open field, his army was defeated, and the gates of the capital were thrown open to the Persians (538 b.c.).^ With the fall of Babylon, the sceptre of dominion, borne for so many years by Semitic princes, was given into the hands of the Aryan peoples, who were destined, from this time forward, to shape the course of events, and control the affairs of civilization. ^ The device of turning the Euphrates, which Herodotus makes an incident of the siege, was not resorted to by Cyrus; but it seems that a httle later (in 521-519 B.C.), the city, having revolted, was actually taken in this way by the Persian king Darius. Herodotus confused the two events. GREAT EDIFICES. 61 The Great Edifices of Babylon. — The deep impression which Babylon produced upon the early Greek travellers was made chiefly by her vast architectural works, — her temples, palaces, elevated gardens, and great walls. The Hanging Gardens of Neb- uchadnezzar and the walls of the city were reckoned among the wonders of the world. The Babylonians, like their predecessors the Chaldaeans, ac- corded to the sacred edifice the place of pre-eminence among their architec- tural works. Sacred archi- tecture in the time of Neb- uchadnezzar had changed but little from the early Chal- daean models (see p. 44) ; save that the temples were now larger and more splen- did, being made, in the language of the inscriptions, " to shine like the sun." The celebrated Temple of the Seven Spheres, at Bor- sippa, a suburb of Babylon, may serve as a representative of the later Babylonian temples. This structure was a vast pyra- mid, rising in seven consecutive stages, or platforms, to a height of over one hundred and fifty feet. Each of the stages was dedicated to one of the seven planets, or spheres. (The sun and moon were reckoned as planets.) The stages sacred to the sun and moon were covered respectively with plates of gold and silver. The chapel, or shrine proper, surmounted the uppermost stage. An inscribed cylinder discovered under the corner of one BIRS-NiriRUr R I ins of the great Temple of the Seven Spheres, near Babylon.) 6Z BABYLONIA. of the stages (the Babylonians ahvays buried records beneath the corners of their pubhc edifices), informs us that this temple was a restoration by Nebuchadnezzar of a very ancient one, which in his day had become, from " extreme old age," a heap of rubbish. This edifice in its decay has left one of the grandest and most impressive ruins in all the East. The Babylonian palaces and palace-mounds, in all essential features, were like those of the Assyrians, already described. The so-called Hanging Gardens excited the greatest admiration of the ancient Greek visitors to Babylon. They were constructed by Nebuchadnezzar, to please his wife Amytis, who, tired of the monotony of the Babylonian plains, longed for the mountain scenery of her native Media. The gardens were probably built somewhat in the form of the tower-temples, the successive stages being covered with earth, and beautified with rare plants and trees, so as to simulate the appearance of a mountain rising in cultivated terraces towards the sky. Under the later kings, Babylon was surrounded with stupendous walls. Herodotus affirms that these defences enclosed an area just fourteen miles square. A recently discovered inscription corroborates the statement of the historian. The object in enclos- ing such an enormous district seems to have been to bring sufficient arable ground within the defences to support the inhabitants in case of a protracted siege. No certain traces of these great ram- parts can now be found. THE PATRIARCHAL AGE. 63 CHAPTER VI. THE HEBREWS. The Patriarchal Age. — Hebrew history begins with the depart- ure of Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, about 2000 B.C. The story of Abraham and his nephew Lot, of Isaac and his sons Jacob and Esau, of the sojourn of the descendants of Jacob in Egypt, of the Exodus, of the conquest of Canaan and the apportionment of the land among the twelve tribes of Israel, — all this marvellous story is told in the Hebrew Scriptures with a charm and simplicity that have made it the familiar possession of childhood. The Judges (from about 1300 to 1095 b.c). — Along period of anarchy and dissension followed the conquest and settlement of Canaan by the Hebrews. " There was no king in Israel : every man did that which was right in his own eyes." During this time there arose a line of national heroes, such as Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson, whose deeds of valor and daring, and the timely deliverance they wrought for the tribes of Israel from their foes, caused their names to be handed down with grateful remembrance to following ages. These popular leaders were called Judges because they usually exercised judicial functions, acting as arbiters between the different tribes, as well as between man and man. Their exploits are nar- rated in the Book of Judges, which is a collection of the fragmen- tary, yet always interesting, traditions of this early and heroic period of the nation's life. The last of the Judges was Samuel, whose life embraces the close of the anarchical age and the beginning of the monarchy. Founding of the Hebrew Monarchy (about 1095 e.g.). — Dur- ing the period of the Judges, the tribes of Israel were united by no central government. Their union was nothing more than a league. 64 THE HEBREWS. or confederation, which has been compared to the Saxon Hep- tarchy in England. But the common dangers to which they were exposed from the attacks of the half-subdued Canaanitish tribes about them, and the example of the great kingdoms of Egypt and Assyria, led the people to begin to think of the advantages of a closer union and a stronger government. Consequently the repub- lic, or confederation, was changed into a kingdom, and Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, a man chosen in part because of his com- manding stature and royal aspect, was made king of the new monarchy (about 1095 B.C.). The king was successful in subduing the enemies of the Hebrews, and consolidated the tribes and settled the affairs of the new state. But towards the close of his reign, his reason became disturbed : fits of gloom and despondency passed into actual insanity, which clouded the closing years of his life. At last he and his three sons fell in battle with the PhiHstines upon Mount Gilboa (about 1055 B.C.). The Reign of David (about 1055-1015 b.c.). — Upon the death of Saul, David, son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, who had been previously anointed and encouraged to expect the crown by the high-priest Samuel, assumed the sceptre. This warhke king trans- formed the pastoral and half-civihzed tribes into a conquering people, and, in imitation of the monarchs of the Nile and the Euphrates, extended the limits of his empire in every direction, and waged wars of extermination against the troublesome tribes of Moab and Edom. Poet as well as warrior, David enriched the literature of his own nation and of the world with lyric songs that breathe such a spirit of devotion and trust that they have been ever since his day the source of comfort and inspiration to thousands.^ He had in mind to build at Jerusalem, his capital city, a magnificent temple, and spent the latter years of his life in collecting material for this pur- 1 The authorship of the different psalms is a matter of debate, yet critics are very nearly agreed in ascribing the composition of at least a considerable number of them to David. THE REIGN OF SOLOMON. 65 pose. In dying, he left the crown to Solomon, his youngest son, his eldest, Absalom, having been slain in a revolt against his father, and the second, Adonijah, having been excluded from the succes- sion for a similar crime. The Reign of Solomon (about 1015-975 b.c). — Solomon did not possess his father's talent for mihtary affairs, but was a liberal patron of architecture, commerce, and learning. He erected, with the utmost magnificence of adornment, the temple at Jeru- salem, planned by his father David. King Hiram of Tyre, who THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. (A Restoration.) was a close friend of the Hebrew monarch, aided him in this un- dertaking by supplying him with the celebrated cedar of Lebanon, and with Tyrian architects, the most skilled workmen at that time in the world. The dedication ceremonies upon the completion of the building were most imposing and impressive. Thenceforth this temple was the centre of the Jewish worship and of the national life. For the purpose of extending his commerce, Solomon built fleets upon the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The most remote regions of Asia and Africa were visited by his ships, and their rich and wonderful products made to contribute to the wealth and glory of his kingdom. 66 THE HEBREWS. Solomon maintained one of the most magnificent courts ever held by an oriental sovereign. When the Queen of Sheba, attracted by the reports of his glory, came from Southern Arabia to visit the monarch, she exclaimed, " The half was not told me." He was the wisest king of the East. His proverbs are famous specimens of sententious wisdom. He was versed, too, in botany, being acquainted with plants and trees " from the hyssop upon the wall to the cedar of Lebanon." But wise as was Solomon in his words, his life was far from being either admirable or prudent. In conformity with Asiatic custom, he had many wives — seven hundred, we are told — of different nationalities and religions. Through their persuasion the old monarch himself fell into idolatry, which turned from him the affections of his best subjects, and prepared the way for the dissensions and wars that followed his death. The Division of the Kingdom (about 975 b.c). — The reign of Solomon was brilliant, yet disastrous in the end to the Hebrew monarchy. In order to carry on his vast undertakings, he had laid most oppressive taxes upon his people. When Rehoboam, his son, succeeded to his father's place, the people entreated him to lighten the taxes that were making their very lives a burden. Influenced by young and unwise counsellors, he replied to the petition with haste and insolence : "My father," said he, "chas- tised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." Immediately all the tribes, save Judah and Benjamin, rose in revolt, and succeeded in setting up, to the north of Jerusalem, a rival kingdom, with Jeroboam as its first king. This northern state, with Samaria as its capital, became known as the Kingdom of Israel ; the southern, of which Jerusalem remained the capital, was called the Kingdom of Judah. Thus was torn in twain the empire of David and Solomon. United, the tribes might have maintained an empire capable of offering successful resistance to the encroachments of the powerful and ambitious monarchs about them. But now the land becomes an easy prey to the spoiler. It is henceforth the pathway of the THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. 67 conquering armies of the Nile and the Euphrates. Between the powerful monarchies of these regions, as between an upper and nether millstone, the little kingdoms are destined, one after the other, to be ground to pieces. The Kingdom of Israel (9757-722 b.c). — The kingdom of the Ten Tribes maintained an existence for about two hundred and fifty years. Its story is instructive and sad. Many passages of its history are recitals of the struggles between the pure worship of Jehovah and the idolatrous service of the deities introduced from the surrounding nations. The cause of the religion of Jeho- vah, as the tribes of Israel had received it from the patriarch Abraham and the lawgiver Moses, was boldly espoused and upheld by a line of the most remarkable teachers and prophets produced by the Hebrew race, among whom Elijah and Elisha stand pre- eminent. The little kingdom was at last overwhelmed by the Assyrian power. This happened 722 B.C., when Samaria, as we- have already narrated in the history of Assyria, was captured by Sargon, king of Nineveh, and the Ten Tribes were carried away into cap- tivity beyond the Euphrates (see p. 48). From this time they are quite lost to history. The country, left nearly vacant by this wholesale deportation of its inhabitants, was filled with other subjects or captives of the Assyrian king. The descendants of these, mingled with the few Jews of the poorer class that were still left in the country, formed the Samaritans of the time of Christ. The Kingdom of Judah (975?-586 b.c). — This little king- dom, torn by internal religious dissensions, as was its rival kingdom of the north, and often on the very verge of ruin from Egyptian or Assyrian armies, maintained an independent existence for about four centuries. During this period, a line of eighteen kings, of most diverse character, sat upon the throne. Upon the exten- sion of the power of Babylon to the west, Jerusalem was forced to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Babylonian kings. The kingdom at last shared the fate of its northern rival. Neb- 68 THE HEBREWS. uchadnezzar, in revenge for an uprising of the Jews, besieged and captured Jerusalem, and carried away a large part of the people, and their king Zedekiah, into captivity at Babylon (see p. 58). This event virtually ended the separate and pohtical life of the Hebrew race (586 B.C.). Henceforth Judah constituted simply a province of the empires — Babylonian, Persian, Mace- donian, and Roman — which successively held sway over the regions of Western Asia, with, however, just one flicker of national life under the Maccabees, during a part of the two centuries pre- ceding the birth of Christ. It only remains to mention those succeeding events which be- long rather to the story of the Jews as a people than as a nation. Upon the capture of Babylon by the Persian king Cyrus (see p. 60), that monarch, who was kindly disposed towards the Jews that he there found captives, permitted them to return to Jerusalem and restore the temple. Jerusalem thus became again the centre of the old Hebrew worship, and, although shorn of national glory, * continued to be the sacred centre of the ancient faith till the second generation after Christ. Then, in chastisement for re- peated revolts, the city was laid in ruins by the Romans ; while vast numbers of the inhabitants — some authorities say over one million — were slain, or perished by famine, and the remnant were driven into exile to different lands. Thus, by a series of unparalleled calamities and persecutions, the descendants of Abraham were " sifted among all nations " ; but to this day they cling with a strange devotion and loyalty to the simple faith of their fathers. Hebrew Religion and Literature. The ancient Hebrews made little or no contribution to science. They produced no new order of architecture. In sculpture they did nothing : their rehgion forbade their making "graven images." Their mission was to teach religion. Here they have been the instructors of the world. Their literature is a religious one ; for RELIGION AND LITERATURE. 69 literature with them was simply a medium for the conveyance of religious instruction and the awakening of devotional feeling. The Hebrew religion, a pure monotheism, the teachings of a long hne of holy men — patriarchs, lawgivers, prophets, and priests — stretching from Abraham down to the fifth century B.C., is con- tained in the sacred books of the Old Testament Scriptures. In these ancient writings, patriarchal traditions, histories, dramas, poems, prophecies, and personal narratives blend in a wonderful mosaic, which pictures with vivid and grand effect the various migrations, the deliverances, the calamities — all the events and religious experiences in the checkered life of the Chosen People. Out of this old exclusive, formal Hebrew religion, transformed and spiritualized by the Great Teacher, grew the Christian faith. Out of the Old Testament arose the New, which we should think of as a part of Hebrew Hterature : for although written in the Greek language, and long after the close of the political life of the Jewish nation, still it is essentially Hebrew in thought and doc- trine, and the supplement and crown of the Hebrew Scriptures. Besides the Sacred Scriptures, called collectively, by way of pre-eminence, the Bible (The Book), it remains to mention espe- cially the Apocrypha, embracing a number of books that were composed after the decline of the prophetic spirit, and which show traces, as indeed do several of the later books of the Bible, of the influence of Persian and Greek thought. These books are generally regarded by the Jews and Protestants as uncanonical, but in the main are considered by the Roman Catholics as pos- sessing equal authority with the other books of the Bible. Neither should we fail to mention the Talmud, a collection of ""Hebrew customs and traditions, with the comments thereupon of the rabbis, a work held by most Jews next in sacredness to the Holy Book ; the writings of Philo, an illustrious rabbi who lived at Alexandria just before the birth of Christ ; and the Antiquities of the Jews and the Jewish Wars by the historian Josephus, who lived and wrote about the time of the taking of Jerusalem by Titus ; that is, during the latter part of the first century after Christ. 70 THE PHCENICIANS, CHAPTER VII. THE PHOENICIANS. The Land and the People. — Ancient Phoenicia embraced a Uttle strip of broken sea-coast lying between the Mediterranean and the ranges of Mount Lebanon. One of the most noted pro- ductions of the country was the fine fir-timber cut from the forests that crowned the lofty ranges of the Lebanon Mountains. The " cedar of Lebanon" holds a prominent place both in the history and the poetry of the East. Another celebrated product of the country was the Tyrian purple, which was obtained from several varieties of the murex, a species of shell-fish, secured at first along the Phoenician coast, but later sought in distant waters, especially in the Grecian seas. The Phoenicians were of Semitic race, and of close kin to most of the so-called Canaanitish tribes. They were a maritime and trading people. Tyre and Sidon. — The various Phoenician cities never coalesced to form a true nation. They simply constituted a sort of league, or confederacy, the petty states of which generally acknowledged the leadership of Tyre or of Sidon, the two chief cities. The place of supremacy in the confederation was at first held by Sidon, but later by Tyre. From the nth to the 4th century B.C., Tyre controlled, almost without dispute on the part of Sidon, the affairs of Phoenicia. During this time the maritime enterprise and energy of her mer- chants spread the fame of the little island-capital throughout the world. She was queen and mistress of the Mediterranean. During all the last centuries of her existence, Phoenicia was, for the most part, tributary to one or another of the great monarchies about her. She acknowledged in turn the suzerainty of the Assyr- PHiENICIAN COMMERCE. 71 ian, the Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Persian, and the Macedo- nian kings. Alexander the Great, after a most memorable siege, captured the city of Tyre — which alone of all the Phoenician cities closed her gates against the conqueror — and reduced it to ruins (332 B.C.). The city never recovered from this blow. The site of the once brilliant maritime capital is now " bare as the top of a rock," a place where the few fishermen that still frequent the spot spread their nets to dry. Phoenician Commerce. — When we catch our first glimpse of the Mediterranean, about 1500 B.C., it is dotted with the sails of Phoenician navigators. It was natural that the people of the Phoe- nician coast should have been led to a seafaring life. The lofty mountains that back the little strip of shore seemed to shut them out from a career of conquest and to prohibit an extension of their land domains. At the same time, the Mediterranean in front in- vited them to maritime enterprise ; while the forests of Lebanon in the rear offered timber in abundance for their ships. The Phoenicians, indeed, were the first navigators who pushed out boldly from the shore and made real sea voyages. The longest voyages were made to procure tin, which was in great demand for the manufacture of articles in bronze. The nearest region where this metal was found was the Caucasus, on the eastern shore of the Euxine. The Phoenician sailors boldly threaded the .^gean Archipelago, passed through the Hellespont, braved the unknown terrors of the Black Sea, and from the land of Colchis brought back to the manufacturers of Asia the coveted article. Towards the close of the nth century B.C., the jealousy of the Pelasgic states of Greece and of the Archipelago, that were now growing into maritime power, closed the ^gean Sea against the Phoenician navigators. They then pushed out into the Western Mediterranean, and opened the tin-mines of the Iberian (Spanish) peninsula. When these began to fail, these bold sailors passed the Pillars of Hercules, faced the dangers of the Atlantic, and brought back from those distant seas the tin gathered in the mines of Britain. 72 THE PHCENICIANS. Phcenician Colonies. — Along the different routes pursued by their ships, and upon the coasts visited by them, the Phoenicians estabhshed naval stations and trading-posts. Settlements were founded in Lesbos, Rhodes, and other islands of the yEgean Sea, as well as in Greece itself. The shores of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica were fringed with colonies ; while the coast of North Africa was dotted with such great cities as Utica, Hippo, and Carthage. Colonies were even planted beyond the Pillars of Hercules, upon the Atlantic seaboard. The Phoenician settlement of Gades, upon the western coast of Spain, is still preserved in the modern Cadiz. Arts disseminated by the Phoenicians. — We can scarcely over- rate the influence of Phoenician maritime enterprise upon the dis- tribution of the arts and the spread of culture among the early peoples of the Mediterranean area. " Egypt and Assyria," says Lenormant, " were the birthplace of material civilization ; the Canaanites [Phoenicians] were its missionaries." Most prominent of the arts which they introduced among all the nations with whom they traded was that of alphabetical writing. Before or during the rule of the Hyksos in Egypt, the Phoe- nician settlers in the Delta borrowed from the Egyptians twenty- two hieratic characters, which they passed on to their Asiatic kinsmen. These characters received new names, and became the Phoenician alphabet. Now, wherever the Phoenicians went, they carried this alphabet as " one of their exports." It was through them, probably, that the Greeks received it ; the Greeks passed it on to the Romans, and the Romans gave it to the German peoples. In this way did our alphabet come to us from Old Egypt. The introduction of letters among the different nations, vast as was the benefit which the gift conferred upon peoples just begin- ning to make advances in civilization, was only one of the many advantages which resulted to the early civilization of Europe from the commercial enterprise of the Phoenicians. It is probable that they first introduced among the semi-civilized tribes of that conti- nent the use of bronze, which marks an epoch in their growing culture. Articles of Phoenician workmanship are found in the GREAT ENTERPRISES. 73 earliest tombs of the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Romans ; and in very many of the manufactures of these peoples may be traced the influence of Phoenician art. Great Enterprises aided by the Phoenicians. — While scatter- ing the germs of civilization and culture broadcast over the entire Mediterranean area, the enterprising Phoenicians were also lending aid to almost every great undertaking of antiquity. King Hiram of Tyre furnished Solomon with artisans and skilled workmen, and with great rafts of timber from Lebanon, for build- ing the splendid temple at Jerusalem. The Phoenicians also pro- vided timber from their fine forests for the construction of the great palaces and temples of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians. They built for the Persian king Xerxes the Hellespon- tine bridges over which he marched his immense army into Greece (see p. 8i). They furnished contingents of ships to the kings of Nineveh and Babylon for naval operations both upon the Mediter- ranean and the Persian and Arabian gulfs. Their fleets served as transports and convoys to the expeditions of the Persian monarchs aiming at conquest in Asia Minor or in Europe. They formed, too, the naval branch of the armaments of the Pharaohs ; for the Egyp- tians hated the sea, and never had a native fleet. And it was Phoenician sailors that, under the orders of Pharaoh-Necho, cir- cumnavigated Africa (see p. 26) — an undertaking which, although attended perhaps with less advantage to the world, still is reckoned quite as remarkable, considering the remote age in which it was accomplished, as the circumnavigation of the globe by the Portu- guese navigator Magellan, more than two thousand years later. 74 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER VIII. THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. I. Political History. Kinship of the Medes and Persians. — It was in very remote times, that some Aryan tribes, separating themselves from the other members of the Aryan family, sought new abodes on the plateau of Iran. The tribes that settled in the south became known as the Persians ; while those that took possession of the mountain regions of the northwest were called Medes. The Medes, through mingling with native non-Aryan tribes, became quite different from the Persians ; but notwithstanding this, the names of the two peo- ples were always very closely associated, as in the familiar legend, " The law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not." The Medes at first the Leading Race. — Although the Persians were destined to become the dominant tribe of all the Iranian Aryans, still the Medes were at first the leading people. Cyaxares (625-585 B.C.) was their first prominent leader and king. We have already seen how, aided by the Babylonians, he overthrew the last king of Nineveh, and burned that capital (see p. 51). Cyaxares was followed by his son Astyages (585-558 b.c), dur- ing whose reign the Persians, whom Cyaxares had brought into at least partial subjection to the Median crown, revolted, overthrew the Median power, and thenceforth, held the place of leadership and authority. Reign of Cyrus the Great (558-529 b.c). — The leader of the revolt against the Medes was Cyrus, the tributary king of the Per- sians. Through his energy and soldierly genius, he soon built up an empire more extended than any over which the sceptre had yet been swayed by an Oriental monarch, or indeed, so far as we know, REIGN OF CYRUS. 75 by any ruler before his time. It stretched from the Indus to the farthest Hmits of Asia Minor, and from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, thus embracing not only the territories of the Median kingdom, but also those of the allied kingdoms of Lydia and Babylonia. The subjugation of Babylonia to the Persian authority has already been narrated (see p. 60). We will now tell how Cyrus gained the kingdom of Lydia. Lydia was a country in the western part of Asia Minor. It was a land highly favored by nature. It embraced two rich river val- leys, — the plains of the Hermus and the Cayster, — which-, from the mountains inland, slope gently to the island-dotted ^'Egean. The Pactolus, and other tributaries of the streams we have named, rolled down "golden sands," while the mountains were rich in the precious metals. The coast region did not at first belong to Lydia ; it was held by the Greeks, who had fringed it with cities. The capital of the country was Sardis, whose citadel was set on a lofty and precipitous rock. The Lydians were a mixed people, formed, it is thought, by the mingling, in prehistoric times, of x\ryan tribes that crossed the ^gean from Europe, with the original non- Aryan population of the country. The last and most renowned of the Lydian kings was Croesus. Under him the Lydian empire attained its greatest extension, em- bracing all the states of Asia Minor west of the Halys, save Lycia. The tribute Croesus collected from the Greek cities, which he subjugated, and the revenues he derived from his gold mines, rendered him the richest monarch of his times, so that his name has passed into the proverb "Rich as Croesus." Now Astyages, whom Cyrus had just overthrown, was the brother-in-law of this Croesus. When Croesus heard of his rela- tive's misfortune, he resolved to avenge his wrongs. The Delphian oracle (see p. 104), to which he sent to learn the issue of a war upon Cyrus, told him that he "would destroy a great kingdom." Interpreting this favorably, he sent again to inquire whether the empire he should establish would prove permanent, and received 76 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. this oracle : " Flee and tarry not when a mule ^ shall be king of the Medes." Deeming the accession of a mule to the Persian throne altogether impossible, he inferred the oracle to mean that his empire should last forever. Thus encouraged in his purpose, Croesus prepared to make war upon Persia. But he had miscalculated the strength and activity of his enemy. Cyrus marched across the Halys, defeated the Lydian army in the field, and after a short siege captured Sardis ; and Lydia became a province of the new Persian empire. There is a story which tells how Cyrus had caused a pyre to be erected on which to burn Croesus, but at the last moment was struck by hear- ing the unfor- tunate monarch repeatedly call the name of Solon. Seeking the meaning of this, he was told that Croe- g sus in his pros- perous years was visited by the Greek sage Solon, who, in answer to the inquiry of Croesus as to whether he did not deem him a happy man, replied, " Count no man happy until he is dead." Cyrus was so impressed with the story, so the legend tells, that he released the captive king, and treated him with the greatest kindness. This war between Croesus and Cyrus derives a special impor- tance from the fact that it brought the Persian empire into con- 1 The allusion is to the (traditional) mixed Persian and Median descent of Cyrus. TOMB OF CYRUS THE GREAT. (Present Condition.) REIGN OF CAMBYSES. 77 tact with the Greek cities of Asia, and thus led on directly to that memorable struggle between Greece and Persia known as the Grgeco-Persian War. Tradition says that Cyrus lost his life while leading an expedi- tion against some Scythian tribes in the north. He was buried at Pasargadse, the old Persian capital, and there his tomb stands to-day, surrounded by the ruins of the magnificent buildings with which he adorned that city. The following cuneiform inscription may still be read upon a pillar near the sepulchre : " I am Cyrus, the king, the Akhaemenian." Cyrus, notwithstanding his seeming love for war and conquest, possessed a kindly and generous disposition. Almost universal testimony has ascribed to him the purest and most beneficent character of any Eastern monarch. Reign of Cambyses (529-522 e.g.). — Cyrus the Great left two sons, Cambyses and Smerdis : the former, as the oldest, inherited the sceptre, and the title of king. He began a despotic and un- fortunate reign by causing his brother, whose influence he feared, to be secretly put to death. With far less ability than his father for their execution, Cambyses conceived even vaster projects of conquest and dominion. Asia had hitherto usually afforded a sufficient field for the ambition of Oriental despots. Cambyses determined to add the country of Africa to the vast inheritance received from his father. Upon some slight pretext, he invaded Egypt, captured Memphis, and ascended the Nile to Thebes. From here he sent an army of fifty thousand men to subdue the oasis of Ammoii, in the Libyan desert. Of the vast host not a man returned from the expedition. It is thought that the army was overwhelmed and buried by one of those fatal storms, called simooms, that so frequently sweep over those dreary wastes of sand. After a short, unsatisfactory stay in Egypt, Cambyses set out on his return to Persia. While on his way home, news was brought to him that his brother Smerdis had usurped the throne. A 78 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. Magian ^ impostor, Gomates by name, who resembled the mur- dered Smerdis, had personated him, and actually grasped the sceptre. Entirely disheartened by this starthng intelligence, Cam- byses in despair took his own life. Reign of Darius I. (521-486 b.c). — The Persian nobles soon rescued the sceptre from the grasp of the false Smerdis, and their leader, Darius, took the throne. The first act of Darius was to punish, by a general massacre, the Magian priests for the part they had taken in the usurpation of Smerdis. CAPTIVE INSURGENTS BROUGHT BEFORE DARIUS. Beneath his foot is the Magus Gomates, the false Smerdis. (From the great Behistun Rock,) With quiet and submission secured throughout the empire, Darius gave himself, for a time, to the arts of peace. He built a palace at Susa, and erected magnificent structures at Persepolis ; 1 There were at this time two opposing religions in Persia : Zoroastrianism, which taught the simple worship of God under the name of Orniazd; and Magianism, a less pure faith, whose professors were fire-worshippers. The former was the religion of the Aryans; the latter, that of the non- Aryan por- tion of the population. The usurpation which placed Smerdis on the throne was planned by the Magi, Smerdis himself being a fire-priest. REIGN OF DARIUS I. 79 reformed the administration of the government (see p. 82), mak- ing such wise and lasting changes that he has been called " the second founder of the Persian empire " ; established post-roads, instituted a coinage for the realm, and upon the great rock of Behistun, a lofty smooth-faced chff on the western frontier of Persia, caused to be inscribed a record of all his achievements.^ And now the Great King, Lord of Western Asia and of Egypt, conceived and entered upon the execution of vast designs of con- quest, the far-reaching effects of which were destined to live long after he had passed away. Inhospitable steppes on the north, and burning deserts on the south, whose shifting sands within a period yet fresh in memory had been the grave of a Persian army, seemed to be the barriers which Nature herself had set for the limits of empire in these directions. But on the eastern flank of the king- dom the rich and crowded plains of India invited the conqueror with promises of endless spoils and revenues ; while on the west a new continent, full of unknown mysteries, presented virgin fields never yet traversed by the army of an Eastern despot. Darius determined to extend the frontiers of his empire in both these directions. At one blow the region of northwestern India known as the Punjab, was brought under Persian authority ; and thus with a sin- gle effort were the eastern limits of the empire pushed out so as to include one of the richest countries of Asia — one which hence- forth returned to the Great King an annual revenue vastly larger than that of any other province hitherto acquired, not even except- ing the rich district of Babylonia, With an army numbering, it is said, more than 700,000 men, Darius now crossed the Bosphorus by means of a sort of pontoon bridge, constructed by Grecian architects, and passing the Danube by means of a similar bridge, penetrated far into what is now Rus- 1 This important inscription is written in the cuneiform characters, and in three languages, Aryan, Turanian, and Semitic. It is the Rosetta Stone of the cuneiform writings, the key to their treasures having been obtained from its parallel columns. 80 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. sia, which was then occupied by Scythian hordes. The results of the expedition were the addition of Thrace to the Persian empire, and the making of Macedonia a tributary kingdom. Thus the Persian kings secured their first foothold upon the European continent. The most significant campaign in Europe was yet to follow. In 500 B.C., the Ionian cities in Asia Minor subject to the Persian authority revolted. The Greeks of Europe lent aid to their sister states. Sardis was sacked and burned by the insurgents. With the revolt crushed and punished with great severity, Darius deter- mined to chastise the European Greeks, and particularly the Athe- nians, for their insolence in giving aid to his rebellious subjects. Herodotus tells us that he appointed a person whose sole duty it was daily to stir up the purpose of the king with the words, "Master, remember the Athenians." A large land and naval armament was fitted out and placed under the command of Mardonius, a son-in-law of Darius. The land forces suffered severe losses at the hands of the barbarians of Thrace, and the fleet was wrecked by a violent storm off Mount Athos, three hundred ships being lost (492 B.C.). Two years after this disaster, another expedition, consisting of 120,000 men, was borne by ships across the yEgean to the plains of Marathon. The details of the significant encounter that there took place between the Persians and the Athenians will be given when we come to narrate the history of Greece. We need now simply note the result, — the complete overthrow of the Persian forces by the Greeks under Miltiades (490 B.C.). Darius, angered beyond measure by the failure of the expedi- tion, stirred up all the provinces of his vast empire, and called for new levies from far and near, resolved upon leading in person such an army into Greece that the insolent Athenians should be crushed at a single blow, and the tarnished glory of the Persian arms restored. In the midst of these preparations, with the Egyptians in revolt, the king suddenly died, in the year 486 B.C. Reign of Xerxes I. (486-465 b.c). — The successor of Darius, THE END OE THE FERSEiN EMPIRE. 81 his son Xerxes, though more indined to indulge in the ease and luxury of the palace than to subject himself to the hardship and discipline of the camp, was urged by those about him to an active prosecution of the plans of his father. After crushing the Egyptian revolt and another insurrection in Babylonia, the Great King was free to devote his attention to the distant Greeks. Mustering the contingents of the different prov- inces of his empire, Xerxes led his vast army over the bridges he had caused to be thrown across the Hellespont, crushed the Spartan guards at the Pass of Thermopylae, pushed on into Attica, and laid Athens in ruins. But there fortune forsook him. At the naval battle of Salamis, his fleet was cut to pieces by the Grecian ships ; and the king, making a precipitate retreat into Asia, has- tened to his capital, Susa. Here, in the pleasures of the harem, he sought solace for his wounded pride and broken hopes. He at last fell a victim to palace intrigue, being slain in his own chamber (465 B.C.). End of the Persian Empire. — The power and supremacy of the Persian monarchy passed away with the reign of Xerxes. The last one hundred and forty years of the existence of the empire was a time of weakness and anarchy. This period was spanned by the reigns of eight kings. It was in the reign of Artaxerxes II., called Mnemon for his remarkable memory, that took place the well- known expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks under Cyrus, the brother of Artaxerxes, an account of which will be given in con- nection with Grecian history (see chap, xv.) . The march of the Ten Thousand through the very heart of the dominions of the Great King demonstrated the amazing internal weakness of the empire. Marathon and Salamis had shown the immense superiority of the free soldiery of Greece over the splen- did but servile armies of Persia, that were often driven to battle with the lash. These disclosures invited the Macedonians to the invasion and conquest of the empire. In the year 334 B.C., Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, led a small army of thirty-five thousand Greeks and Macedonians 82 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. across the Hellespont. Three great battles — that of the Granicus, that of Issus, and that of Arbela — decided the fate of the Persian Empire. Darius III., the last of the Persian kings, fled from the field of Arbela, on the plains of Assyria, only to be treacherously assassinated by one of his own generals. The succeeding movements of Alexander, and the estabhshment by him of the short-lived Macedonian monarchy upon the ruins of the Persian state, are matters that properly belong to Grecian history, and will be related in a following chapter. 2. Government, Religion, and Arts. The Government. — Before the reign of Darius I., the govern- ment of the Persian Empire was like that of all the great monarchies that had preceded it ; that is, it consisted of a great number of subject states, which were allowed to retain their own kings and manage their own affairs, only paying tribute and homage, and furnishing contingents in time of war, to the Great King. We have seen how weak was this rude and primitive type of government. Darius I., who possessed rare ability as an organizer, remodelled the system of his predecessors, and actually realized for the Persian monarchy what Tiglath-Pileser II. had long before attempted, but only with partial and temporary success, to accom- plish for the Assyrian. The system of government which Darius I. thus first made a real fact in the world, is known as the satrapal, a form represented to-day by the government of the Turkish Sultan. The entire kingdom was divided into twenty or more provinces, over each of which was placed a governor, called a satrap, appointed by the king. These officials held their position at the pleasure of the sovereign, and were thus rendered his subservient creatures. Each province contributed to the income of the king a stated revenue. There were provisions in the system by which the king might be apprised of the disloyalty of his satraps. Thus the whole dominion was firmly cemented together, and the facility with Z OR OA S TRIANISM. 83 which almost sovereign states — which was the real character of the different parts of the empire under the old system — could plan and execute revolt, was removed. Literature and E-elig^ion : Zoroastrianism. — The Hterature of the ancient Persians was mostly religious. Their sacred book is called the Zen da- vesta. The oldest part is named the Vendidad. This con- sists of laws, incan- tations, and mythical tales. The religious sys- tem of the Persians, as taught in the Zend- avesta, is known as Zoroastrianism, from Zoroaster, its founder. This great reformer and teacher is now generally supposed to have lived and taught about looo B.C. Zoroastrianism was a system of belief known as dualism. Opposed to the "good spirit," Or- mazd (Ahura Maz- da), there was a "dark spirit," Ahriman ( Angro-Mainyus), who was constantly striving to destroy the good creations of Ormazd by creating all evil things — storm, drought, pestilence, noxious animals, weeds and thorns in the world without, and evil in the heart of man within. From all eternity these two powers had been contending THE KING IN COMBAT WITH A MONSTER. (From Persepolis.) 84 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. for the mastery ; in the present neither had the decided advan- tage ; but in the near future Ormazd would triumph over Ahriman, and evii be forever destroyed. The duty of man was to aid Ormazd by working with him against the evil-loving Ahriman. He must labor to eradicate every evil and vice in his own bosom ; to reclaim the earth from barrenness ; and to kill all bad animals — frogs, toads, snakes, lizards — which Ahriman had created. Herodotus saw with amazement the Magian priests armed with weapons and en- gaged in slaying these animals as a "pious pastime." Agri- culture was a sacred caUing, for the husbandman was reclaiming the ground from the curse of the Dark Spirit. Thus men might become co-workers with Ormazd in the mighty work of over- throwing and destroying the kingdom of the wicked Ahriman. The evil man was he who allowed vice and degrading passions to find a place in his own soul, and neglected to exterminate nox- ious animals and weeds, and to help redeem the earth from the barrenness and sterility created by the enemy of Ormazd. ^ After death the souls of the good and the bad alike must pass over a narrow bridge : the good soul crosses in safety, and is admitted to the presence of Ahura Mazda ; while the evil soul is sure to fall from the path, sharp as the edge of a scimitar, into a pit of woe, the dwelling-place of Ahriman. Architecture. — The simple religious faith of the Persians dis- couraged, though it did not prohibit, the erection of temj^les : their sacred architecture scarcely included more than an altar and 1 The belief of the Zoroastrians in the sacredness of the elements, — earth, water, fire, and air, — - created a difficulty in regard to the disposal of dead bodies. They could neither be burned, buried, thrown into the water, nor left to decay in a sepulchral chamber or in the open air, without polluting one or another of the sacred elements. So they were given to the birds and wild beastSy being exposed on lofty towers or in desert places. Those whose feel- ings would not allow them thus to dispose of their dead, were permitted to bury them, provided they first encased the body in wax, to preserve the ground from contamination. The modern Parsees, or Fire-Worshippers, give their dead to the birds. ARCHITECTURE. 85 pedestal. The palace of the monarch was the structure that ab- sorbed the best efforts of the Persian artist. In imitation of the inhabitants of the valley of the Euphrates, the Persian kings raised their palaces upon lofty terraces, or plat- forms. But upon the table-lands they used stone instead of adobe or brick, and at PersepoHs, raised, for the substruction of their pal- aces, an immense platform of massive masonry, which is one of the most wonderful monuments of the world's ancient builders. This terrace, which is uninjured by the 2300 years that have passed since its erection, is about 1500 feet long, 1000 feet wide, and THE RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS. 40 feet high. The summit is reached by broad stairways of stone, pronounced by competent judges the finest work of the kind that the ancient or even the modern world can boast. Surmounting this platform are the ruins of the palaces of several of the Persian monarchs, from Cyrus the Great to Artaxerxes Ochus. These ruins consist chiefly of walls, columns, and great monolithic door- and window-frames. Colossal winged bulls, copied from the Assyrians, stand as wardens at the gateway of the ruined palaces. 86 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. Numerous sculptures in bas-relief decorate the faces of the walls, and these throw much light upon the manners and customs of the ancient Persian kings. The successive palaces increase, not only in size, but in sumptuousness of adornment, thus registering those changes which we have been tracing in the national history. The residence of Cyrus was small and modest, while that of Artaxerxes Ochus equalled in size the great palace of the Assyrian Sargon. TABLE OF KINGS OF MEDIA AND PERSIA. Kings of Media Kings of Persia Phraortes ? -625 Cyaxares 625-585 Astyages S^S'SSS Cyrus 558-529 Cambyses . 529-522 Pseudo-Smerdis 522-521 Darius 1 521-486 Xerxes 1 486-465 Artaxerxes I. (Longimanus) 465-425 Xerxes II 425 Sogdianus 425-424 Darius II. (Nothus) 424-405 Artaxerxes II. (Mnemon) 405-359 Artaxerxes III. (Ochus) 359-338 Arses Z7i^-ZZ^ Darius III. (Codomannus) 'iZ^~l>Z'^ SECTION II. — GRECIAN HISTORY. CHAPTER IX. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. Divisions of Greece. — Long arms of the sea divide the Grecian peninsula into three parts, called Northern, Central, and Southern Greece. Northern Greece included the ancient districts of Thessaly and Epirus. Thessaly consists mainly of a large and beautiful valley, walled in on all sides by rugged mountains. It was celebrated far and wide for the variety and beauty of its scenery. On its northern edge, lay a beautiful glen, called the Vale of Tempe, the only pass by which the plain of Thessaly could be entered from the north. The district of Epirus stretched along the Ionian Sea on the west. In the gloomy recesses of its forests of oak was situated the renowned Dodonean oracle of Zeus. Central Greece was divided into eleven districts, among which were Phocis, B(jeotia, and Attica. In Phocis was the city of Delphi, famous for its oracle and temple ; in Boeotia, the city of Thebes ; and in Attica, the brilliant Athens. Southern Greece, or the Peloponnesus, was also divided into eleven provinces, of which the more important were Arcadia, embracing the central part of the peninsula ; Achaia, the northern part ; Argolis, the eastern ; and Messenia and Laconia, the south- ern. The last district was ruled by the city of Sparta, the great rival of Athens. Mountains. — The Cambunian Mountains form a lofty wall along a considerable reach of the northern frontier of Greece, 88 THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. shutting out at once the cold winds and hostile races from the north. Branching off at right angles to these mountains is the Pindus range^ which runs south into Central Greece. In Northern Thessaly is Mount Olympus, the most celebrated mountain of the peninsula. The ancient Greeks thought it the highest mountain in the world (it is 9700 feet in height), and believed that its cloudy summit was the abode of the celestials. South of Olympus, close by the sea, are Ossa and Pelion, cele- brated in fable as the mountains which the giants, in their war against the gods, piled one upon another, in order to scale Olympus. Parnassus and HeHcon, in Central Greece, — beautiful moun- tains clad with trees and vines and filled with fountains, — were beHeved to be the favorite haunts of the Muses. Near Athens are Hymettus, praised for its honey, and Pentehcus, renowned for its marbles. The Peloponnesus is rugged with mountains that radiate in all directions from the central country of Arcadia, — " the Switzerland of Greece." Islands about Greece. — Very much of the history of Greece is intertwined with the islands that lie about the mainland. On the east, in the JEgean Sea, are the Cyclades, so called because they form an irregular circle about the sacred isle of Delos, where was a very celebrated shrine of Apollo. Between the Cyclades and Asia Minor lie the Sporades, which islands, as the name implies, are sowu irregularly over that portion of the yEgean. Just off the coast of Attica is a large island called by the ancients Euboea, but known to us as Negropont. Close to the Asian shores are the large islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and Rhodes. To the west of Greece lie the Ionian Islands, the largest of which was called Corcyra, now Corfu. The rugged island of Ithaca was the birthplace of Odysseus, or Ulysses, the hero of the Odyssey. Cythera, just south of the Peloponnesus, was sacred to Aphrodite (Venus), as it was here fable said she rose from the sea-foam. INFLUENCE OF COUNTRY. 89 Beyond Cythera, in the Mediterranean, midway between Greece and Egypt, is the large island of Crete, noted in legend for its labyrinth and its legislator Minos. Influence of Country. — The physical features of a country have much to do with the moulding of the character and the shap- ing of the history of its people. Mountains, isolating neighboring communities and shutting out conquering races, foster the spirit of local patriotism and preserve freedom ; the sea, inviting abroad, and rendering intercourse with distant countries easy, awakens the spirit of adventure and develops commercial enterprise. Now, Greece is at once a mountainous and a maritime country. Abrupt mountain-walls fence it off into a great number of isolated districts, each of which in ancient times became the seat of a distinct community, or state. Hence the fragmentary character of its political history. The Hellenic states never coalesced to form a single nation. The peninsula is, moreover, by deep arms and bays of the sea, converted into what is in effect an archipelago. (No spot in Greece is forty miles from the sea.) Hence its people were early tempted to a sea-faring life. The shores of the Mediterranean and the Euxine were dotted with Hellenic colonies. Intercourse with the old civilizations of Egypt and Phoenicia stirred the natur- ally quick and versatile Greek intellect to early and vigorous thought. The islands strewn with seeming carelessness through the ^gean Sea were " stepping-stones," which invited the earliest settlers of Greece to the delightful coast countries of Asia Minor, and thus blended the life and history of the opposite shores. Again, the beauty of Grecian scenery inspired many of the most striking passages of her poets ; and it is thought that the exhila- rating atmosphere and brilliant skies of Attica were not unrelated to the lofty achievements of the Athenian intellect. The Pelasgians. — The historic inhabitants of the land we have described were called by the Romans Greeks, but they called themselves Hellenes, from their fabled ancestor Hellen. But the Hellenes, according to their own account, were not the 90 THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. original inhabitants of the country. They were preceded by a people whom they called Pelasgians. Who these folk were is a matter of debate. Some think that the Pelasgians and Hellenes were kindred tribes, but that the Hellenes, possessing superior qualities, gradually acquired ascendency over the Pelasgians and finally absorbed them. PREHISTORIC WALLS AT MYCEN/E. (The Lions' Gate.) The Pelasgians were somewhat advanced beyond the savage state. They cultivated the ground, and protected their cities with walls. Remnants of their rude but massive masonry still encumber in places the soil of Greece. The Hellenes. — The Hellenes were divided into four tribes ; namely, the lonians, the Dorians, the Achaeans, and the Cohans. THE HELLENES. 91 The lonians were a many-sided, imaginative people. They developed every part of their nature, and attained unsurpassed excellence in art, literature, and philosophy. The most noted Ionian city was Athens, whose story is a large part of the history of Hellas. The Dorians were a practical, unimaginative race. Their speech and their art were both alike without ornament. They developed the body rather than the mind. Their education was almost wholly gymnastic and military. They were unexcelled as warriors. The most important city founded by them was Sparta, the rival of Athens. These two great Hellenic families divided Hellas ^ into two rival parties, which through their mutual jealousies and contentions finally brought all the bright hopes and promises of the Hellenic race to utter ruin. The Achaeans are represented by the Greek legends as being the predominant race in the Peloponnesus during the Heroic Age. The yEolians formed a rather ill-defined division. In historic times the name is often made to include all Hellenes not enu- merated as lonians or Dorians. These several tribes, united by bonds of language and rehgion, always regarded themselves as members of a single family. They were proud of their ancestry, and as exclusive almost as the Hebrews. All non-Hellenic people they called Barbarians.'^ When the mists of antiquity are first lifted from Greece, about the beginning of the eighth century B.C., we discover the several families of the Hellenic race in possession of Greece proper, of the islands of the yEgean, and of the western coasts of Asia Minor, Respecting their prehistoric migrations and settlements, we have little or no certain knowledge. 1 Under the name Hellas the ancient Greeks included not only Greece proper and the islands of the adjoining seas, but also the Hellenic cities in Asia Minor, Southern Italy, Sicily, and elsewhere. "Wherever were Hellenes, there was Hellas." -At first, this term meant scarcely more than "unintelligible folk"; but later, it came to express aversion and contempt. 92 THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. Oriental Immigrants. — According to their own traditions the early growth of civihzation among the European Hellenes was promoted by the settlement among them of Oriental immigrants, who brought with them the arts and culture of the different coun- tries of the East. From Egypt, legend affirms, came Cecrops, bringing with him the arts, learning, and priestly wisdom of the Nile valley. He is represented as the builder of the citadel (the Cecropia) of what was afterwards the illustrious city of Athens. From Phoenicia Cadmus brought the letters of the alphabet, and founded the city of Thebes. The Phrygian Pelops, the progenitor of the renowned heroes Agamemnon and Menelaus, settled in the southern penin- sula, which was called after him the Peloponnesus (the Island of Pelops) . The nucleus of fact in all these legends is probably this, — that the European Greeks received the primary elements of their cul- ture from the East through their Asiatic kinsmen. Local Patriotism of the Greeks : the City the Political Unit. — The narrow political sympathies of the ancient Greeks pre- vented their ever uniting to form a single nation. The city was with them the political unit. It was regarded as a distinct, self- governing state, just like a modern nation. A citizen of one city was an alien in any other : he could not marry a woman of a city not his own, nor hold property in houses or lands within its terri- tory. A Greek city-state usually embraced, besides the walled town, a more or less extensive border of gardens and farms, a strip of sea-coast, or perhaps a considerable mountain-hemmed valley or plain. The model city (or state, as we should say) must not be over large. In this, as in everything else, the ancient Greeks applied the Delphian rule — " Measure in all things." " A small city," says one of their poets, " set upon a rock and well governed, is better than all foolish Nineveh." Aristotle thought that the ideal city should not have more than ten thousand citizens. CHARACTER OF THE LEGENDARY AGE. 93 CHAPTER X. THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE. (From the earliest times to 776 B.C.) Character of the Legendary Age. — The real history of the Greeks does not begin before the eighth century B.C. All that lies back of that date is an inseparable mixture of myth, legend, and fact. Yet this shadowy period forms the background of Gre- cian history, and we cannot understand the ideas and acts of the Greeks of historic times without at least some knowledge of what they believed their ancestors did and experienced in those pre- historic ages. So, as a sort of prelude to the story we have to tell, we shall repeat some of the legends of the Greeks respecting their national heroes and their great' labors and undertakings. But it must be carefully borne in mind that these legends are not history, though some of them may be confused remembrances of actual events. The Heroes: Heracles, Theseus, and Minos. — The Greeks believed that their ancestors were a race of heroes of divine or semi-divine lineage. Every tribe, district, city, and village even, preserved traditions of its heroes, whose wonderful exploits were commemorated in song and story. Many of these personages acquired national renown, and became the revered heroes of the whole Greek race. Heracles was the greatest of the national heroes of the Greeks. He is represented as performing, besides various other exploits, twelve superhuman labors, and as being at last translated from a blazing pyre to a place among the immortal gods. The myth of Heracles, who was at first a solar divinity, is made up mainly of the very same fables that were told of the Chaldaean solar hero 94 THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE. Izdubar (see p. 46). Through the Phoenicians, these stories found their way to the Greeks, who ascribed to their own Heracles the deeds of the Chaldsean sun-god. Theseus, a descendant of Cecrops, was the favorite hero of the Athenians, being one of their legendary kings. Among his great exploits was the slaying of the Minotaur, — a monster which Minos, king of Crete, kept in a labyrinth, and fed upon youths and maidens sent from Athens as a forced tribute. Minos, king of Crete, was one of the greatest tribal heroes of the Dorians. Legend makes him a legislator of divine wisdom, the suppressor of piracy in the Grecian seas, and the founder of the first great maritime state of Hellas. The Argonautic Expedition. — Besides the labors and exploits of single heroes, the legends of the Greeks tell of several memora- ble enterprises conducted by bands of heroes. Among these were the Argonautic Expedition and the Siege of Troy. The tale of the Argonautic Expedition is told with many varia- tions in the legends of the Greeks. Jason, a prince of Thessaly, with fifty companion heroes, among whom were Heracles, Theseus, and Orpheus, the latter a musician of superhuman skill, the music of whose lyre moved brutes and stones, set sail in " a fifty-oared galley," called the Ai'go (hence the name Argonauts , given to the heroes), in search of a "golden fleece" which was fabled to be nailed to a tree and watched by a dragon, in the Grove of Ares, on the eastern shores of the Euxine, an inhospitable region of un- known terrors. The expedition is successful, and, after many won- derful adventures, the heroes return in triumph with the sacred relic. Different meanings have been given to this tale. In its primi- tive form it was doubtless a pure myth of the rain-clouds ; but in its later forms we may believe it to symbolize the maritime explo- rations in the eastern seas, of some of the tribes of Pelasgian Greece. The Trojan War (legendary date 11 94-1 184 b.c). — The Trojan War was an event about which gathered a great circle of tales and poems, all full of an undying interest and fascination. THE TROJAN WAR. 95 Ilios, or Troy, was the capital of a strong empire, represented as Grecian in race and language, which had grown up in Asia Minor, along the shores of the Hellespont. The traditions tell how Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, visited the Spartan king Menelaus, and ungenerously requited his hospitality by secretly bearing away to Troy his wife Helen, famous for her rare beauty. All the heroes of Greece flew to arms to avenge the wrong. A host of one hundred thousand warriors was speedily gathered. Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and "king of men," was chosen leader of the expedition. Under him were the "lion-hearted Achilles," of Thessaly, the "crafty Ulysses" (Odysseus), king of Ithaca, Ajax, "the swift son of Oileus," the Telamonian Ajax, the aged Nestor, and many more — the most vahant heroes of all Hellas. Twelve hundred galleys bore the gathered clans from xAulis in Greece, across the ^-^gean to the Trojan shores. For ten years the Greeks and their allies hold in close siege the city of Priam. On the plains beneath the walls of the capital, the warriors of the two armies fight in general battle, or contend in single encounter. At first, Achilles is foremost in every fight ; but a fair-faced maiden, who fell to him as a prize, having been taken from him by his chief, Agamemnon, he is filled with wrath, and sulks in his tent. Though the Greeks are often sorely pressed, still the angered hero refuses them his aid. At last, however, his friend Patroclus is killed by Hector, eldest son of Priam, and then Achilles goes forth to avenge his death. In a fierce combat he slays Hector, fastens his body to his chariot wheels, and drags it thrice around the walls of Troy. The city is at last taken through a device of the " crafty Ulys- ses." Upon the plain in sight of the walls is built a wooden statue of a horse, in the body of which are hidden several Grecian war- riors. Then the Greeks retire to their ships, as though about to abandon the siege. The Trojans issue from the gates and gather in wondering crowds about the image. They believe it to be an offering sacred to Athena, and so dare not destroy it ; but, on the other hand, misled by certain omens and by a lying Greek named 96 THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE. Sinon, they level a place in the walls of their city, and drag the statue within. At night the concealed warriors issue from the horse, open the gates of the city to the Grecians, and Troy is sacked, and burned to the ground. The aged Priam is slain, after having seen his sons and many of his warriors perish before his face, ^neas, with his aged father, Anchises, and a few devoted followers, escapes, and, after long wanderings, becomes the fabled founder of the Roman race in Italy. It is a matter of difficulty to point out the nucleus of fact in this the most elaborate and interesting of the Grecian legends. Some beheve it to be the dim recollection of a prehistoric conflict between the Greeks and the natives of Asia Minor, arising from the attempt of the former to secure a foothold upon the coast. That there really existed in prehistoric times such a city as Troy, has been placed beyond doubt by the excavations and discoveries of Dr. Schliemann. Return of the Grecian Chieftains. — After the fall of Troy, the Grecian chieftains and princes returned home. The poets repre- sent the gods as withdrawing their protection from the hitherto favored heroes, because they had not respected the altars of the Trojans. So, many of them were driven in endless wanderings over sea and land. Homer's Odyssey portrays the sufferings of the "much-enduring" Odysseus (Ulysses), impelled by divine wrath to long journeyings through strange seas. In some cases, according to the tradition, advantage had been taken of the absence of the princes, and their thrones had been usurped. Thus at Argos, yEgisthus had won the unholy love of Clytemnestra, wife and queen of Agamemnon, who on his return was murdered by the guilty couple. In pleasing contrast with this we have exhibited to us the constancy of Penelope, although sought by many suitors during the absence of her husband Ulysses. The Dorian Invasion, or the Return of the Heraclidae (leg- endary date 1 104 B.C.). — We set the tradition of the return of the Heraclidae apart from the legends of the enterprises just detailed, for the reason that it undoubtedly contains quite a large MIGRATIONS TO ASIA MINOR. 97 historical element. The legend tells how Heracles, an Achaean, in the times before the Trojan War, ruled over the Peloponnesian Achseans. Just before that event his children were driven from the land. Eighty years after the war, the hundred years of exile ap- pointed by the Fates having expired, the descendants of the hero, at the head of the Dorians from Northern Greece, returned, and with their aid effected the conquest of the greater part of the Peloponnesus, and established themselves as conquerors and mas- ters in the land that had formerly been ruled by their semi- divine ancestor. This legend seems to be a dim remembrance of a prehistoric invasion of the Peloponnesus by the Dorians from the north of Greece, and the expulsion or subjugation of the native inhabitants of the peninsula. Some of the dispossessed Achseans, crowding towards the north of the Peloponnesus, drove out the lonians who occupied the south- ern shore of the Corinthian Gulf, and settling there, gave the name Achaia to all that region. Arcadia, in the centre of the Peloponnesus, was another district which did not fall into the hands of the Dorians. The people here, even down to the latest times, retained their primitive cus- toms and country mode of Hfe ; hence Arcadian came to mean rustic and artless. Migrations to Asia Minor. — The Greek legends represent that the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnesus resulted in three distinct migrations from the mother-land to the shores of Asia Minor and the adjoining islands. The northwestern shore of Asia Minor was settled, mainly, by yEolian emigrants from Boeotia. The neighboring island of Lesbos became the home and centre of ^olian culture in poetry and music. The coast to the south of the Cohans was occupied by Ionian emigrants, who, uniting with their Ionian kinsmen already settled upon that shore, built up twelve splendid cities (Ephesus, Miletus, etc.), w^hich finally united to form the celebrated Ionian confederacy. 98 THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE. South of the lonians, all along the southwestern shore of Asia Minor, the Dorians established their colonies. They also settled the important islands of Cos and Rhodes, and conquered and col- onized Crete. The traditions of these various settlements represent them as having been effected in a very short period ; but it is probable that the movement embraced several centuries, — possibly a longer time than has been occupied by the English race in colonizing the dif- ferent lands of the Western World. With these migrations to the Asiatic shores, the Legendary Age of Greece comes to an :rd. From tliis time forward we tread upon fairly firm historic ground. Society in the Heroic Age. — In Homeric times the Greeks were ruled by hereditary kings, who were believed to be of divine or superhuman lineage. The king was at once the lawgiver, the judge, and the mihtary leader of his people. He was expected to prove his divine right to rule, by his courage, strength, wisdom, and eloquence. When he ceased to display these qualities, " the sceptre departed from him." The king was surrounded by an advisory council of chiefs or nobles. The king hstened to what the nobles had to say upon any measure he might propose, and then acted according to his own will or judgment, restrained only by the time-honored customs of the community. Next to the council of chiefs, there was a general assembly, called the Agora, made up of all the common freemen. The members of this body could not take part in any debate, nor could they vote upon any question. This body, so devoid seem- ingly of all authority in the Homeric age, was destined to become the all-powerful popular assembly in the democratic cities of his- toric Greece. Of the condition of the common freemen we know but little ; the legendary tales were concerned chiefly with the kings and nobles. Slavery existed, but the slaves did not constitute as numerous a class as they became in historic times. SOCIETY IN THE HEROIC AGE. 99 In the family, the wife held a much more honored position than she occupied in later times. The charming story of the constant Penelope, which we find in the Odyssey\ assures us that the Ho- meric age cherished a chivalric feeling for woman. In all ranks of society, life was marked by a sort of patriarchal simplicity. Manual labor was not yet thought to be degrading. Ulysses constructs his own house and raft, and boasts of his skill in swinging the scythe and guiding the plow. Spinning and weav- ing were the chief occupations of the women of all classes. One pleasing and prominent virtue of the age was hospitahty. There were no public inns in those times, hence a sort of gentle necessity compelled the entertainment of wayfarers. The hospi- tality accorded was the same free and impulsive welcome that the Arab sheik of to-day extends to the traveller whom chance brings to his tent. But while hospitable, the nobles of the heroic age were often cruel, violent, and treacherous. Homer represents his heroes as committing without a blush all sorts of fraud and villa- nies. Piracy was considered an honorable occupation. FORTY-OARED GREEK BOAT. (After a Vase Painting.) Art and architecture were in a rudimentary state. Yet some advance had been made. The cities were walled, and the pal- aces of the kings possessed a certain barbaric splendor. Coined money was unknown ; wealth was reckoned chiefly in flocks and herds, and in uncoined metals. The art of writing was probably unknown, at least there is no certain mention of it ; and sculpture could not have been in an advanced state, as the Homeric poems make no mention of statues. The state of literature is shown by 100 THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE. the poems of the Iliad and Odyssey : before the close of the age, epic poetry had reached a perfection beyond which it has never been carried. Commerce was yet in its infancy. Although the Greeks were to become a great maritime people, still in the Homeric age they had evidently explored the sea but little. The Phoenicians then ruled the waves. The Greeks in those early times knew scarcely any- thing of the world beyond Greece proper and the neighboring islands and shores. Scarcely an echo of the din of life from the then ancient and mighty cities of Egypt and Chaldaea seems to have reached their ears. INTR OD UC TOR V. 101 CHAPTER XI. RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. Introductory. — Without at least some little knowledge of the religious ideas and institutions of the ancient Greeks, we should find very many passages of their history wholly unintelligible. Hence a few remarks upon these matters will be in place here. Cosmography of the Greeks. — The Greeks supposed the earth to be, as it appears, a plane, circular in form like a shield. Around it flowed the "mighty strength of the ocean river," a stream broad and deep, beyond which on all sides lay realms of Cimmerian darkness and terror. The heavens were a solid vault, or dome^ whose edge shut down close upon the earth. Beneath the earth, reached by subterranean passages, was Hades, a vast region, the realm of departed souls. Still beneath this was the prison Tarta- rus, a pit deep and dark, made fast by strong gates of brass and iron. Sometimes the poets represent the gloomy regions beyond the ocean stream as the cheerless abode of the dead. The sun was an archer-god, borne in a fiery chariot up and down the steep pathway of the skies. Naturally it was imagined that the regions in the extreme east and west, which were bathed in the near splendors of the sunrise and sunset, were lands of de- light and plenty. The eastern was the favored country of the Ethiopians,^ a land which even Zeus himself so loved to visit that often he was found absent from Olympus when sought by suppliants. The western region, adjoining the ocean stream, formed the Ely- sian Fields, the abodes of the souls of heroes and of poets." 1 There was also a western division of these people. 2 These conceptions, it will be understood, belong to the early period of Greek mythology. As the geographical knowledge of the Greeks became more 102 RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. The Olympian Council. — There were twelve members of the celestial council, six gods and as many goddesses. The male deities were Zeus, the father of gods and men ; Poseidon, ruler of the sea ; Apollo, or Phoebus, the god of light, of music, and of prophecy ; Ares, the god of war ; Hephaestus, the deformed god of fire, and the forger of the thunderbolts of Zeus ; Hermes, the wing-footed herald of the celestials, the god of invention and com- merce, himself a thief and the patron of thieves. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HOMER. The female divinities were Hera, the proud and jealous queen of Zeus; Athena, or Pallas, — who sprang full-grown from the forehead of Zeus, — the goddess of wisdom, and the patroness of the domestic arts ; Artemis, the goddess of the chase ; Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, born of the sea-foam ; Hestia, the extended, they modified considerably the topography not only of the upper- world, but also of the nether-woild. LESSEK DEITIES AND MONSTERS. 103 goddess of the hearth ; Demeter, the earth-mother, the goddess of grains and harvests.^ These great deities were simply magnified human beings, pos- sessing all their virtues, and often their weaknesses. They give way to fits of anger and jealousy. " Zeus deceives, and Hera is constantly practising her wiles." All the celestial council, at the sight of Hephaestus limping across the palace floor, burst into "inextinguishable laughter"; and Aphrodite, weeping, moves all to tears. They surpass mortals rather in power, than in size of body. They can render themselves visible or invisible to human eyes. Their food is ambrosia and nectar ; their movements are swift as light. They may suffer pain ; but death can never come to them, for they are immortal. Their abode is Mount Olympus and the airy regions above the earth. Lesser Deities and Monsters. — Besides the great gods and goddesses that constituted the Olympian council there was an almost infinite number of other deities, celestial personages, and monsters neither human nor divine. Hades (Pluto) ruled over the lower realms ; Dionysus (Bac- chus) was the god of wine ; the goddess Nemesis was the pun- isher of crime, and particularly the queller of the proud and arrogant ; ^olus was the ruler of the winds, which he confined in a cave secured by mighty gates. There were nine Muses, inspirers of art and song. The Nymphs were beautiful maidens, who peopled the woods, the fields, the rivers, the lakes, and the ocean. Three Fates allotted life and death, and three Furies (Eumenides or Erinnyes) avenged crime, 1 The Latin names of these divinities are as follows: Zeus = Jupiter; Poseidon = Neptune; Apollo = Apollo ; Ares = Mars; Hephaestus = Vulcan; Hermes = Mercury; Hera = Juno; Athena = Minerva; Artemis = Diana; Aphrodite = Venus; Hestia = Vesta; Demeter = Ceres. These Latin names, however, are not the equivalents of the Greek names, and should not be used as such. The mythologies of the Hellenes and Romans were as distinct as their languages. Consult Rawlinson's Religions of the Ancient World. 104 RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. especially murder and unnatural crimes. The Gorgons were three sisters, with hair entwined with serpents. A single gaze upon them chilled the beholder to stone. Besides these there were Scylla and Charybdis, sea-monsters that made perilous the passage of the Sicilian Straits, the Centaurs, the Cyclops, Cerberus, the watch-dog of Hades, and a thousand others. Many at least of these monsters were simply personifications of the human passions or of the malign and destructive forces of nature. Thus, the Furies were the embodiment of an aroused and accusing conscience ; the Gorgons were tempests, which lash the sea into a fury that paralyzes the affrighted sailor ; Scylla and Charybdis were dangerous whirlpools off the coast of Sicily. To the common people at least, however, they were real creatures, with all the parts and habits given them by the poets. Modes of Divine Communication. — In the early ages the gods were wont, it was believed, to visit the earth and mingle with men. But even in Homer's time this familiar intercourse was a thing of the past — a tradition of a golden age that had passed away. Their forms were no longer seen, their voices no longer heard. In these later and more degenerate times the recognized modes of divine communication with men were by oracles, and by casual and unusual sights and sounds, as thunder and lightning, a sudden tempest, an eclipse, a flight of birds, — particularly of birds that mount to a great height, as these were supposed to know the secrets of the heavens, — the appearance or action of the sacrifi- cial victims, or any strange coincidence. The art of interpreting these signs or omens was called the art of divination. Oracles. — But though the gods might reveal their will and inten- tions through signs and portents, still they granted a more special communication of counsel through what were known as oi-acles. These communications, it was believed, were made by Zeus, and especially by Apollo, who was the god of prophecy, the Revealer. Not everywhere, but only in chosen places, did these gods mani- fest their presence and communicate the divine will. These favored spots were called oracles, as were also the responses there ORACLES. 105 received. There were twenty-two oracles of Apollo in different parts of the Grecian world, but a much smaller number of those of Zeus. These were usually situated in wild and desolate spots — in dark forests or among gloomy mountains. The most renowned of the oracles was that of the Pelasgian Zeus at Dodona, in Epirus, and that of Apollo at Delphi, in Phocis. At Dodona the priests listened in the dark forests for the voice of Zeus in the rustling leaves of the sacred oak. At Delphi there was a deep fissure in the ground, which emitted stupefying vapors, that were thought to be the inspiring breath of Apollo. Over the spot was erected a splendid temple, in honor of the oracle. The revelation was generally received by the Pythia, or priestess, seated upon a tripod placed over the orifice. As she became overpow- ered by the influence of the prophetic exhalations, she uttered the message of the god. These mutterings of the Pythia were taken down by attendant priests, interpreted, and written in hexameter verse. Sometimes the will of Zeus was communicated to the pious seeker by dreams and visions granted to him while sleeping in the temple of the oracle. The oracle of Delphi gained a celebrity wide as the world : it was often consulted by the monarchs of Asia and the people of Rome in times of extreme danger and perplexity. Among the Greeks scarcely any undertaking was entered upon without the will and sanction of the oracle being first sought. Especially true was this in the founding of colonies. Apollo was believed " to take delight in the foundation of new cities." No colony could prosper that had not been established under the superintendence of the Delphian god. Some of the responses of the oracle contained plain and whole- some advice ; but very many of them, particularly those that implied a knowledge of the future, were obscure and ingeniously ambiguous, so that they might correspond with the event however affairs should turn. Thus, Croesus is told that, if he undertake an expedition against Persia, he will destroy a great empire. He did, indeed ; — but the empire was his own. 106 RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. The Delphian oracle was at the height of its fame before the Persian War ; in that crisis it did not take a bold or patriotic stand, and its reputation was sensibly impaired. Ideas of the Future. — To the Greeks life was so bright and joyous a thing that they looked upon death as a great calamity. They therefore pictured life after death, except in the case of a favored few, as being hopeless and aimless.^ The Elysian Fields, away in the land of sunset, were, indeed, filled with every delight ; but these were the abode only of the great heroes and benefactors of the race. So long as the body remained unburied, the soul wandered restless in Hades ; hence the sacredness of the rites of sepulture. The Sacred Games. — The celebrated games of the Greeks had their origin in the belief of their Aryan ancestors that the souls of the dead were gratified by such spectacles as delighted them during their earthly Hfe. During the Heroic Age these festivals were simply sacrifices or games performed at the tomb, or about the pyre of the dead. Gradually these grew into religious festi- vals observed by an entire city or community, and were celebrated near the oracle or shrine of the god in whose honor they were instituted ; the idea now being that the gods were present at the festival, and took delight in the various contests and exercises. Among these festivals, four acquired a world-wide celebrity. These were the Olympian, celebrated in honor of Zeus, at Olympia, in the Peloponnesus ; the Pythian, in honor of Apollo, near his shrine and oracle at Delphi ; the Nemean, in honor of Zeus, at Nemea ; and the Isthmian, held in honor of Poseidon, on the isthmus of Corinth. The Olympian Games. — Of these four festivals the Olympian secured the greatest renown. In 776 B.C. Coroebus was victor in 1 Homer makes the shade of the great Achilles in Hades to say : — " I would be A laborer on earth, and serve for hire Some man of mean estate, who makes scant cheer, Rather than reign o'er all who have gone down To death." — Od. XI. 489-90 [Bryant's Trans.]. INFLUENCE OF THE GRECIAN GAMES. 107 the foot-race at Olympia, and as from that time the names of the victors were carefully registered, that year came to be used by the Greeks as the starting-point in their chronology. The games were held every fourth year, and the interval between two successive festivals was known as an Olympiad. The contests consisted of foot-races, boxing, wrestling, and other athletic games. Later, chariot-racing was introduced, and became the most popular of all the contests. The competitors must be of the Hellenic race ; and must, moreover, be unblemished by any crime against the state or sin against the gods. Specta- tors from all parts of the world crowded to the festival. The victor was crowned with a garland of wild olive ; heralds proclaimed his name abroad ; his native city received him as a conqueror, sometimes through a breach made in the city walls ; his statues, executed by eminent artists, were erected at Olympia and in his own city ; sometimes even divine honor and worship were accorded to him ; and poets and orators vied with the artist in perpetuating the name and deeds of him who had reflected undying honor upon his native state. Influence of the Grecian Games. — For more than a thousand years these national festivals exerted an immense influence upon the literary, social, and religious life of Hellas. They enkindled among the widely scattered Hellenic states and colonies a com- mon literary taste and enthusiasm ; for into all the four great festivals, excepting the Olympian, were introduced, sooner or later, contests in poetry, oratory, and history. During the festivals, poets and historians read their choicest productions, and artists exhibited their masterpieces. The extraordinary honors accorded to the victors stimulated the contestants to the utmost, and strung to the highest tension every power of body and mind. To this fact we owe some of the grandest productions of the Greek race. ■ They moreover promoted intercourse and trade ; for the festi- vals became great centres of traffic and exchange during the continuance of the games. They softened, too, the manners of the people, turning their thoughts from martial exploits and giving 108 RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. the states respite from war ; for during the month in which the re- hgious games were held it was sacrilegious to engage in miHtary expeditions. In all these ways, though they never drew the states into a common poHtical union, still they did impress a common character upon their social, intellectual, and religious life. The Amphictyonic Council. — Closely connected with the re- ligious festivals were the so-called Amphictyonies, or " leagues of neighbors." These were associations of a number of cities or tribes for the celebration of religious rites at some shrine, or for the protection of some particular temple. Pre-eminent among all such unions was that known as the Delphic Amphictyony, or simply The Amphictyony. This was a league of twelve of the sub-tribes of Hellas, whose main object was the protection of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Another of its purposes was, by humane regulations, to mitigate the cruel- ties of war. The so-called First Sacred War (600-590 e.g.) was a crusade of ten years carried on by the Amphictyons against the cities of Crissa and Cirrha for their robbery of the treasures of the Delphian temple. The cities were finally taken, levelled to the ground, and the wrath of the gods invoked upon any one who should dare to rebuild them. The spoils of the war were devoted to the establishment of musical contests in honor of the Delphian Apollo. Thus originated the renowned Pythian festivals, to which allusion has just been made. THE TYRANTS. 109 CHAPTER XII. AGE OF THE TYRANTS AND OF COLONIZATION: THE EARLY GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. (776-500 B.C.) I. Age of the Tyr.\nts and of Colonization. The Tyrants. — In the Heroic Age the preferred form of gov- ernment was a patriarchal monarchy. The Iliad says, '■' The rule of many is not a good thing : let us have one ruler only, — one king, — him to whom Zeus has given the sceptre." But by the dawn of the historic period, the patriarchal monarchies of the Achaean age had given place, in almost all the Grecian cities, to oligarchies or aristocracies. The Oligarchies give Way to Tyrannies. — The nobles into whose hands the ancient royal authority thus passed were often divided among themselves, and invariably opposed by the common freemen, who, as they grew in intelhgence and wealth, naturally aspired to a place in the government. The issue of long conten- tions was the overthrow almost everywhere of oligarchical govern- ment and the establishment of the rule of a single person. Usually this person was one of the nobility, who held himself out as the champion of the people, and who with their help usurped the government. One who had thus seized the govern- ment was called a tyrant. By this term the Greeks did not mean one who rules harshly, but simply one who holds the supreme authority in the state illegally. Some of the Greek Tyrants were mild and beneficent rulers, though too often they were all that the name implies among us. But the Greeks always had an inextinguishable hatred of arbi- trary rule ; consequently the Tyrannies were, as a rule, short-lived, 110 AGE OF THE TYRANTS. rarely lasting longer than three generations. They were usually violently overthrown, and the old oligarchies re-established, or democracies set up in their place. As a rule, the Dorian cities preferred oligarchical, and the Ionian cities democratical, govern- ment. The so-called Age of the Tyrants lasted from 650 to 500 B.C. Among the most noted of the Tyrants were the Pisistratidae, at Athens, of whom we shall speak hereafter ; Periander at Corinth (625-585 B.C.), who was a most cruel ruler, yet so generous a patron of artists and literary men that he was thought worthy of a place among the Seven Sages ; and Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos (535-522 B.C.), who, with that island as a stronghold, and with a fleet of a hundred war-galleys, built up a sort of maritime king- dom in the ^gean, and for the space of more than a decade enjoyed such astonishing and uninterrupted prosperity, that it was believed his sudden downfall and death — he was allured to the Asian shore by a Persian satrap, and crucified — were brought about by the envy of the gods,^ who the Greeks thought were apt to be jealous of over-prosperous mortals. The Foundings of Colonies. — The Age of the Tyrants coincides very nearly with the era of greatest activity in the founding of new colonies. Thousands, driven from their homes, like the Puritans in the time of the Stuart tyranny in England, fled over the seas, and, under the direction of the Delphian Apollo, laid upon remote and widely separated shores the basis of " Dispersed Hellas." The overcrowding of population and the Greek love of adventure also contributed to swell the number of emigrants. During this 1 Herodotus tells how Amasis of Egypt, the friend and ally of the Tyrant, becoming alarmed at his extraordinary course of good fortune, wrote him, begging him to interrupt it and disarm the envy of the gods, by sacrificing his most valued possession. Polycrates, acting upon the advice, threw into the sea a precious ring, which he highly prized; but soon afterwards the jewel was found by his servants in a fish that a fisherman had brought to the palace as a present for Polycrates. When Amasis heard of this, he at once broke off his alliance with the Tyrant, feeling sure that he was fated to suffer some ter- rible reverse of fortune. The event justified his worst fears. i6 40 32 v- \ ^ ^'''a"»«/5i<, < ■Art, ^"Pion'^, G a ti ■^"^Poriai C f«ssn!?j ATHENS AND THE LONG WALLS. a third wall was built parallel to the one running to the former harbor. By means of these walls Athens and her ports, with the intervening land, were converted into a vast fortified district, capable in time of war of holding the entire population of Attica. With her communication with the sea thus secured, and with a powerful navy at her command, Athens could bid defiance to her foes on sea and land. Events leading up to the Thirty Years' Truce. — At the same PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 143 time that Pericles was making the maritime supremacy of Athens more secure, he was endeavoring to build up for her a land empire in Central Greece. As her influence in this quarter increased, Sparta became more and more jealous, and strove to counteract it, chiefly by enhancing the power of Thebes. The contest between the two rivals was long and bitter. It was ended by the well-known Peace of Pericles, or the Thirty Years' Truce (445 b.c). By the terms of this treaty each of the rival cities was left at the head of the confederation it had formed, but neither was to interfere with the subjects or allies of the other, while those cities of Hellas which were not yet members of either league were to be left free to join either according to choice. The real meaning of the Truce was that Athens gave up her ambition to establish a land empire, and was henceforth to be con- tent with supremacy on the seas. It meant further that Greece was to remain a house divided against itself; that democratic Athens must share with aristocratic Sparta the hegemony, or lead- ership, of the Hellenic cities. Pericles adorns Athens with Public Buildings. — Notwith- standing Pericles had failed to build up for Athens a land domin- ion, he had nevertheless succeeded in securing for her a place of proud pre-eminence in maritime Plellas. Athens having achieved such a position as she now held, it was the idea of Pericles that the Athenians should so adorn their city that it should be a fitting symbol of the power and glory of their empire. Nor was it diffi- cult for him to persuade his art-loving countrymen to embellish their city with those masterpieces of genius that in their ruins still excite the admiration of the world. Upon the commanding site of the Acropolis was erected the un- rivalled Parthenon. Various other edifices, rich with sculptures, were also erected there and in difl'erent parts of Athens, until the whole city took on a surprisingly brilliant and magnificent appear- ance. The whole world looked up to the Attic city with the same surprised wonder with which a century before it had regarded the 144 PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. city of Babylon as adorned by the power and wealth of the great N ebuchadnezzar . The Athenians secured the vast sums of money needed for the prosecution of their great architectural works, out of the treasury of the Delian confederacy. The alhes naturally declaimed bitterly against this proceeding, complaining that Athens, with their money, was " gilding itself as a proud and vain woman decks herself out with jewels." But the answer of Pericles to them was, that the money was contributed to the end that the cities of the league should be protected from the Persians, and that so long as the Athenians kept the enemy at a distance they had a right to use the money as they pleased. The Citizens are taken into the Pay of the State. — It was a fixed idea of Pericles that in a democracy there should be not only an equal distribution of political rights among all classes, but also an equahzation of the means and opportunities of exercising these rights, as well as an equal participation by all in social and intellectual enjoyments. In promoting his views Pericles carried to great length the sys- tem of payment for the most common public services. Thus, he introduced the custom of mihtary pay ; hitherto the Athenian sol- dier had served his country in the field as a matter of honor and duty. He also secured the payment of the citizen for serving as a juryman, as well as for his attendance upon the meetings of the popular assembly. Through his influence, also, salaries were at- tached to the various civil offices, the most of which had hitherto been unpaid positions. These various measures enabled the poorer citizens to enjoy, without an inconvenient sacrifice, their franchise in the popular assembly, and to offer themselves for the different magistracies, which up to this time had been practically open only to men of means and leisure. Furthermore, Pericles introduced or extended the practice of supplying all the citizens with free tickets to the theatre and other ATHENIAN RESOURCES. 145 places of amusement, and of banqueting the people on festival days at the pubhc expense. Strength and Weakness of the Athenian Empire. — Under Pericles x\thens had become the most powerful naval state in the world. In one of his last speeches, made at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, in which he recounts the resources of the Athenian empire, Pericles says to his fellow-citizens : " There is not now a king, there is not any nation in the universal world, able to withstand that navy which at this juncture you can launch out to sea." But the most significant feature of this new imperial power was the combination of these vast material resources with the most imposing display of intellectual resources that the world had ever witnessed. Never before had there been such a union of the ma- terial and intellectual elements of civilization at the seat of empire. Literature and art had been carried to the utmost perfection pos- sible to human genius. Art was represented by the inimitable creations of Phidias and Polygnotus. The drama was illustrated by the incomparable tragedies of ^schylus, Sophocles, and Eurip- ides, and by the comedies of Aristophanes, while the writing of the world's annals had become an art in the graceful narrations of Herodotus. But there were elements of weakness in the splendid imperial structure. The subject cities of the empire were the slaves of Athens. To her they paid tribute. To her courts they were dragged for trial. Naturally they regarded x\thens as the de- stroyer of Hellenic liberties, and watched impatiently for the first favorable moment to revolt, and throw off the hateful yoke that she had imposed upon them. Hence the Athenian empire rested upon a foundation of sand. Had Athens, instead of enslaving her confederates of the Delian league, only been able to find out some way of retaining them as allies in an equal union, — a great and perhaps impossible task in that age of the world, — as head of the federated Greek race, she might have secured for Hellas the sovereignty of the Mediter- 146 PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. ranean, and the history of Rome might have ended with the first century of the Repubhc. Furthermore, in his system of payment for the most common pubhc services, and of wholesale public gratuities, Pericles had introduced or encouraged practices that had the same demora- lizing effects upon the Athenians that the free distribution of grain at Rome had upon the Roman populace. These pernicious cus- toms cast discredit upon labor, destroyed frugality, and fostered idleness, thus sapping the virtues and strength of the Athenian democracy. Illustrations of these weaknesses, as well as of the strength of the Athenian empire, will be afforded by the great struggle between Athens and Sparta known as the Peloponnesian War, the causes and chief incidents of which we shall next rehearse. GREECE in the Fifth Century B.C. Zacedcemonian Possessions & Allies I i Athenian JPossessions & Allies i I '^ 23 Perxnthus atiyiiduriut Byzantium Lindus J o Gortijna j fChalcedon ■ATTHEWS, NORTHflUP it CO,, ART-ffllNiINu WUKKS, oUffAUO, N. T, CAUSES OF THE WAR. 147 CHAPTER XV. THE PELUPONNESIAN WAR: THE SPARTAN AND THE THEBAN SUPREMACY. I. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 b.c). Causes of the War. — During the closing years of the' hfe of Pericles, the growing jealousy between x\thens and Sparta broke out in the long struggle known as the - Peloponnesian War. Peri- cles had foreseen the corning storm : " I descry war," said he, " lowering from the Peloponnesus." His whole later policy looked toward the preparation of Athens for the "irrepressible conflict." The immediate causes of the war were, first, the interference of Athens, on the side of the Corcyrseans, in a quarrel between them and their mother city Corinth ; and secondly, the blockade by the Athenians of Potidaea, on the Macedonian coast. This was a Corinthian colony, but it was a member of the Delian league, and was now being chastised by Athens for attempted secession. Cor- inth, as the ever-jealous naval rival of Athens, had endeavored to lend aid to her daughter, but had been worsted in . an engagement with the Athenians. With affairs in this shape, Corinth, seconded by other states that had causes of complaint against Athens, appealed to Sparta, as the head of the Dorian alliance, for aid and justice. The Spartans, after listening to the deputies of both sides, decided that the Athenians had been guilty of injustice, and declared for war. The resolution of the Spartans was endorsed by the Peloponnesian confederation, and apparently approved by the Delphian oracle, which, in response to an inquiry of the Spartans as to what would be the issue of the proposed undertaking, assured them that " they would gain the victory, if they fought with all their might." 148 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. Comparison of the Resources of Sparta and of Athens. — The resources of Hellas were, at the outbreak of the war, very evenly divided between the two parties. With Sparta were all the states of the Peloponnesus, save Argos and Achaia, while beyond the Isthmus the Bceotian League, headed by Thebes, and other states were her alhes. Together, these states could raise a land force of sixty thousand men, besides a considerable naval armament, Cor- inth being especially strong in ships. Athens commanded all the resources of the subject cities — about three hundred in number, with twice as many smaller towns — of her great maritime empire. Her independent allies were Chios, Lesbos, Corcyra, and other states. Of course the chief strength of Athens lay in her splendid navy. The Beginning : Attack upon Platsea by the Thebans. — The first act in the long and terrible drama was enacted at night, within the walls of Platsea. This city, though in Boeotia, was under the protection of Athens, and would have nothing to do with the Boeo- tian League. Anxious to get possession of this place before the actual outbreak of the war which they saw to be inevitable, the Thebans planned its surprise and capture. Three hundred Thebans gained access to the unguarded city in the dead of night, and marching to the public square, summoned the Plataeans to exchange the Athenian for a Boeotian alliance. The Plataeans were upon the point of acceding to all the demands made upon them, when, discovering the small number of the enemy, they attacked and overpowered them in the darkness, and took a hundred and eighty of them prisoners. These captives they after- wards murdered, in violation, as the Thebans always maintained, of a sacred promise that their lives should be spared. This wretched affair at Plataea precipitated the war (431 B.C.). Invasion of Attica : Pestilence at Athens. — A Spartan army was soon overrunning Attica, while an Athenian fleet was ravaging the coasts of the Peloponnesus. Pericles persuaded the country people of Attica to abandon their villas and hamlets and gather CRUEL CHARACTER OF THE WAR. 149 within the defences of the city. He did not deem it prudent to risk a battle in the open fields. From the walls of Athens the people could see the flames of their burning villages and farmhouses, as the enemy ravaged the plains of Attica up to the very gates of the city. It required all the persuasion of Pericles to restrain them from issuing in a body from behind the ramparts and rushing to the defence of their homes. The second year the Lacedsemonians again ravaged the fields about Athens, and drove the Athenians almost to frenzy with the sight of the flame and smoke of such property as had escaped the destruction of the previous year. To increase their misery, a pes- tilence broke out within the crowded city, and added its horrors to the already unbearable calamities of war. No pen could picture the despair and gloom that settled over the city. Athens lost, probably, one-fourth of her fighting men. Pericles, who had been the very soul and life of Athens through these dark days, fell a victim to the plague (429 B.C.). In dying, he said he considered his greatest praise to be that " he had never caused an Athenian to put on mourning." After the death of Pericles the leadership of affairs at Athens fell into the hands of unprincipled demagogues, of whom Cleon was chief. The mob element got control of the poj^ular assembly, so that hereafter we shall find many of its actions characterized neither by virtue nor wisdom. Desperate and Cruel Character of the War. — On both sides the war was waged with the utmost vindictiveness and cruelty. As a rule, all the men captured by either side were killed. In the year 428 B.C. the city of Mytilene, on the island of Lesbos, revolted from the Athenians. With the rebellion sup- pressed, the fate of the Mytileneans was in the hands of the Athenian assembly. Cleon proposed that all the men of the place, six thousand in number, should be slain, and the women and children sold as slaves. This infamous decree was passed, and a galley despatched bearing the sentence for execution to the Athenian general at Mytilene. 150 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. By the next morning, however, the Athenians had repented of their hasty and cruel resolution. A second meeting of the assem- bly was hurriedly called ; the barbarous vote was repealed ; and a swift trireme, bearing the reprieve, set out in anxious haste to overtake the former galley, which had twenty-four hours the start. The trireme reached the island just in time to prevent the execu- tion of the barbarous edict. The second resolution of the Athenians, though more discrimi- nating than the first decree, was quite severe enough. Over one thousand of the nobles of Mytilene were killed, the city was de- stroyed, and the larger part of the lands of the island given to citizens of Athens. Still more unrelenting and cruel were the Spartans. In the summer of the same year that the Athenians wreaked such ven- geance upon the Mytileneans, the Spartans and their allies cap- tured the city of Platsea, put to death all the men, sold the women as slaves, and turned the site of the city into pasture-land. Events leading up to the Peace of Nicias (421 b.c). — Soon after the affair at Mytilene and the destruction of Plataea, an enter- prising general of the Athenians, named Demosthenes, seized and fortified a point of land (Pylos) on the coast of Messenia. The Spartans made every effort to dislodge the enemy. In the course of the siege, four hundred Spartans under Brasidas, having landed upon a little island (Sphacteria), were so unfortunate as to be cut off from the mainland by the sudden arrival of an Athenian fleet. About three hundred of them were at last captured and taken as prisoners to Athens. But affairs now took a different turn ; the Athenians were worsted (at the battle of Delium, 424 B.C.), and then much in- decisive fighting followed. At last negotiations for peace were opened, which, after many embassies to and fro, resulted in what is known as the Peace of Nicias, from the prominent Athenian general who is supposed to have had most to do in bringing it about. The treaty arranged for a truce of fifty years. Each party was to give up to the other all prisoners and captured places. THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION. 151 Alcibiades and the Sicilian Expedition (415-413 b.c). — The Peace of Nicias was only a nominal one. Some of the allies of the two principal parties to the truce were dissatisfied with it, and consequently its terms were not carried out in good faith or tem- per on either side. So the war went on. For about seven years, however, Athens and Sparta refrained from invading each other's territory ; but even during this period each was aiding its allies in making war upon the dependents or confederates of the other. Finally, hostihties flamed out in open and avowed war, and all Hel- las was again lit up with the fires of the fratricidal strife. The most prominent person on the Athenian side during this latter period of the struggle was Alcibiades, a versatile and brilliant man, but a reckless and unsafe counsellor. He was a pupil of Socrates, but he failed to follow the counsels of his teacher. His astonishing escapades only seemed to attach the people more closely to him, for he possessed all those personal traits which make men popular idols. His influence over the democracy was un- limited. He was able to carry through the popular assembly almost any measure that it pleased him to advocate. The more prudent of the Athenians were filled with apprehension for the future of the state under such guidance. The noted misanthrope Timon gave expression to this feeling when, after Alcibiades had secured the assent of the popular assembly to one of his impolitic measures, he said to him : '' Go on, my brave boy, and prosper ; for your prosperity will bring on the ruin of all this crowd." And it did, as we shall see. The most prosperous enterprise of Alcibiades, in the Timonian sense, was the inciting the Athenians to undertake an expedition ALCIBIADES. 152 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. against the Dorian city of Syracuse, in Sicily. The scheme that Alcibiades was revolving in his mind was a most magnificent one. He proposed that the Athenians, after effecting the conquest of Sicily, should make that island the base of operations against both Africa and Italy. With the Italians and Carthaginians subdued, the armaments of the entire Hellenic world outside of the Pelopon- nesus, were to be turned against the Spartans, who with one blow should be forever crushed, and Athens be left the arbiter of the destinies of Hellas. Alcibiades succeeded in persuading the Athenians to undertake at least the first part of the colossal enterprise. An immense fleet was carefully equipped and manned.^ Anxiously did those remain- ing behind watch the squadron as it bore away from the port of Athens. Could the watchers have foreseen the fate of the splen- did armament, their anxiety would have passed into despair. " Athens itself was sailing out of the Piraeus, never again to return." Scarcely had the expedition arrived at Sicily, before Alcibiades, who was one of the leading generals in command of the armament, was summoned back to Athens to answer a charge of impiety.^ Fearing to trust himself in the hands of his enemies at Athens, he fled to Sparta, and there, by traitorous counsel, did all in his power to ruin the very expedition he had planned. He advised the Spartans to send at once their best general to the Syracusans. They sent Gylippus, an able commander, whose generalship con- tributed largely to the total and irretrievable defeat that the Athenians finally suffered. Their fleet and army were both virtu- ally annihilated. Seven thousand prisoners were crowded into the 1 It consisted of one hundred and thirty-four costly triremes, bearing thirty- six thousand soldiers and sailors. The commanders were Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus. Later, Demosthenes was sent out with a reinforcement con- sisting of seventy-three triremes and five thousand soldiers. 2 Just upon the eve of the departure of the expedition, the numerous stat- ues of Hermes scattered throughout the city were grossly mutilated. Alcibi- ades was accused of having had a hand in the affair, and furthermore of having mimicked the sacred rites of the Elensinian mvsteries. THE DECELEAN WAR. 153 open stone quarries, where hundreds speedily died of exposure and starvation. Most of the wretched survivors were sold as slaves. The disaster was appalling and complete. The resources of Athens were wrecked. The Decelean War: The Fall of Athens. —While the Athe- nians were before Syracuse, the Spartans, acting upon the advice of Alcibiades, had taken possession of and fortified a strong and commanding position known as Decelea, in Attica, only twelve miles from Athens. This was a thorn in the side of Athens. Secure in this stronghold, the Spartans could annoy and keep in terror almost all the Attic plain. The occupation by the Spartans of this strategic point had such a determining influence upon the remainder of the Peloponnesian War, that this latter portion of it is known as the Decelean War (413-404 B.C.). Taking advantage of the terrible misfortunes of Athens, her subject-allies now revolted and fell away from her on every side. The Persians, ever ready to aid the Greeks in destroying one another, lent a willing ear to the solicitations of the traitor Alci- biades, and gave help to the Spartans. The Athenians put forth almost superhuman efforts to retrieve their fortunes. Had they been united among themselves, perhaps their efforts might not have been in vain. But the oligarchical party, for the sake of ruining the democracy were wilHng to ruin the empire. While the army was absent from Athens, they over- turned the government, and established a sort of aristocratical rule (411 B.C.), under which affairs were in the hands of a council of Four Hundred. The Athenian troops, however, who were at Samos, would not recognize the new government. They voted themselves to be the true Athens, and forgetting and forgiving the past, recalled Alcibi- ades, and gave him command of the army, thereby well illustrating what the poet Aristophanes said respecting the disposition of the Athenians towards the spoiled favorite, — " They love, they hate, but cannot live without him." Alcibiades detached the Persians from the side of the Spartans, 154 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. and gained some splendid victories for Athens. But he could not undo the evil he had done. He had ruined Athens beyond re- demption by any human power. Constantly the struggle grew more and more hopeless. Alcibiades was defeated, and fearing to face the Athenians, who had deposed him from his command, sought safety in flight. Finally, at ^gospotami, on the Hellespont, the Athenian fleet was surprised and captured by the Spartans under Lysander (405 EX.). The prisoners, three thousand in number, were massacred, and the usual rites of burial denied their bodies. The battle of ^Egospotami sealed the fate of Athens. " That night," writes the historian Xenophon, referring to the night upon which the news of the woful disaster reached Athens, " That night no man slept." The towns on the Thracian and Macedonian coasts, and the islands of the ^gean belonging to the Athenian Empire, now fell into the hands of the Peloponnesians. Athens was besieged by sea and land, and soon forced to surrender. Some of the allies insisted upon the total destruction of the city, and the conversion of its site into pasture-land. The Spartans, however, with appar- ent magnanimity, declared that they would never consent thus " to put out one of the eyes of Greece." The real motive, doubtless, of the Spartans in sparing the city was their fear lest, with Athens blotted out, Thebes or Corinth should become too powerful. So the city itself was spared, but the fortifications of Piraeus and the Long Walls were levelled to the ground, the work of demolition being begun to the accompani- ment of festive music (404 B.C.) . Sparta's power was now supreme. She had neither peer nor rival among all the Grecian states. Throughout the war she had maintained that her only purpose in warring against Athens was to regain liberty for the Grecian cities. We shall very soon see what sort of liberty it was that they enjoyed under her guardian- ship. Results of the War. — " Never," says Thucydides, commenting SPARTAN SUPREMACY. 155 Upon the lamentable results of the Peloponnesian War, " Never had so many cities been made desolate by victories ; . . . never were there so many instances of banishment ; never so many scenes of slaughter either in battle or sedition." Athens was but the wreck of her former self. She had lost two hundred ships and sixty thousand men, including the killed among her allies. Things were just the reverse now of what they were at the time of the Persian invasion. When, with all Athens in ruins, Themistocles at Salamis was taunted by the Spartans with being a man without a city, he replied grandly, " Athens is here in her ships." But now the real Athens was gone ; only the empty shell remained. And all the rest of Hellas showed the marks of the cruel war. Spots where once had stood large towns were now pasture-land. But more lamentable than all else besides, was the effect of the war upon the intellectual and moral life of the Greek race. The Grecian world had sunk many degrees in morality ; while the vigor and productiveness of the intellectual and artistic life of Hellas, the centre and home of which had been Athens, were impaired beyond recovery. The achievements of the Greek intellect, espe- cially in the fields of philosophic thought, in the century following the war were, it is true, wonderful ; but these triumphs merely show, we may believe, what the Hellenic mind would have done for art and general culture, had it been permitted, unchecked, and under the favoring and inspiring conditions of liberty and self- government, to disclose all that was latent in it. 2. The Spartan and the Theban Supremacy. Spartan Supremacy. — For just one generation following the Peloponnesian War (404-371 B.C.), Sparta held the leadership of the Grecian states. Aristocratical governments, with institutions similar to the Spartan, were estabhshed in the different cities of the old Athenian Empire. At Athens, the democratical constitu- tion of Solon, under which the Athenians had attained their great- ness, was abolished, and an oppressive oligarchy established in 156 SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACY. its stead. The Thirty Tyrants, however, who administered this government, were, after eight months' infamous rule, driven from the city, and the old democratic constitution, somewhat modified, was re-established (403 B.C.). It was during this period that Socrates, the greatest moralist and teacher of antiquity that Europe had produced, was con- demned to death, because his teachings were thought contrary to the religion of the Athenians. To this era also belongs the well-known expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks, Expedition of the Ten Thousand (401-400 e.g.). — Cyrus, satrap of the Persian province of Asia Minor, thinking that his brother Artaxerxes held the throne unjustly, planned to wrest it from him. For carrying out this purpose, he raised an army com- posed of a hundred thousand Barbarians and about eleven thousand Greek mercenaries. With this force Cyrus set out from Sardis, in the spring of 401 B.C. He marched without opposition across Asia Minor and Mesopotamia to Babylonia, into the very heart of the Persian empire. Here, at Cunaxa, he was confronted by Artaxerxes with a force of more than half a million of men. The Barbarian allies of Cyrus were scattered at the first onset of the enemy ; but the Greeks stood like a rampart of rock. Cyrus, however, was slain ; and the other Greek generals, having been persuaded to enter into a council, were treacherously murdered by the Persians. The Greeks, in a hurried night meeting, chose new generals to lead them back to their homes. One of these was Xenophon, the popular historian of the expedition. Now commenced one of the most memorable retreats in all history. After a most harassing march over the hot plains of the Tigris and the icy passes of Armenia, the survivors reached the Black Sea, the abode of sister Greek colonies. Theban Supremacy (371-362 b.c). — Throughout all the period of her supremacy, Sparta dealt selfishly and tyrannically with the other Grecian states. But at last the fiery resentment kindled by her oppressive measures inspired such a determined revolt against THE BAN SUPREMACY. 157 her as brought to an end her assumed supremacy over her sister cities. It was a city in Boeotia that led the uprising against Sparta. This was Thebes. The ohgarchical government which the Lace- daemonians had set up in that capital was overthrown by Pelopidas at the head of the so-called Sacred Band, a company of three hundred select men who were bound by oath to stand by each other to the last. Pelopidas was seconded in all his efforts by Epaminondas, one of the ablest generals the Grecian race ever produced. Under the masterly guidance and inspiration of these patriot leaders, Thebes very soon secured a predominating influence in the affairs of Greece. It was Epaminondas who, when his enemies sought to disgrace ^and annoy him by electing him "public scavenger," made, in accepting the office, the memorable utterance, '' If the office will not reflect honor upon me, I will reflect honor upon it." At Leuctra (371 B.C.) the Thebans earned the renown of being the most invincible soldiers in the world by completely overthrow- ing, with a force of six thousand men, the Spartan army of twice that number. This is said to have been the first time that the Spartans were ever fairly defeated in open battle. Their forces had been* annihilated, as at Thermopylae, — but annihilation is not defeat. From the victory of Leuctra dates the short but brilliant period of Theban supremacy. The year after that battle Epaminondas led an army into the Peloponnesus to aid the Arcadians, who had risen against Sparta. Laconia was ravaged, and for the first time Spartan women saw the smoke of fires kindled by an enemy. To strengthen Arcadia's power of resistance to Sparta, Epami- nondas perfected a league among the hitherto isolated towns and cantons of the district. As the mutual jealousies of the lead- ing cities prevented him from making any one of them the capital of the confederation, he founded Megalopolis, or the Great City, and made it the head of the union. In the pursuit of the same poHcy, Epaminondas also restored the independence of Messenia. But, moved by jealousy of the rapidly growing power of Thebes, 1 5 8 SPAR TAN AND THE BAN S U PRE MA C K Athens now formed an alliance with her old rival Sparta against her. Three times more did Epaminondas lead an army into the Peloponnesus. During his third and last expedition he fought with the Spartans and Athenians the great battle of Mantinea, in Arcadia. On this memorable field, Epaminondas led the Thebans once more to victory ; but he himself was slain, and with him fell the hopes and power of Thebes (362 B.C.). All the states of Greece now lay exhausted, worn out by their endless domestic contentions and wars. There was scarcely suffi- cient strength left to strike one worthy blow against enslavement by the master destined soon to come from the North. GENERAL STATEMENT. 159 CHAPTER XVI. PERIOD OF MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY: EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. (338-323 B.C.) General Statement. — Macedonia lay to the north of Greece proper. The ruUng class of the country was probably of Hel- lenic race ; at all events the Macedonian kings were allowed to take part in the Olympian games — a privilege accorded to none but pure Hellenes. Their efforts to spread Greek art and culture among their subjects, a race of rough but brave and martial men^ unaccustomed to city life, had been so far successful that the country had, to a certain degree, become Hellenized. So this period of Macedonian supremacy upon which we are entering belongs to the history of the political life of the Greek race, as well as the eras marked by Athenian, Spartan, or Theban leadership. It was Hellenic institutions, customs, and manners, Hellenic language and civilization, that the Macedonians, in the extended conquests which we are about to narrate, spread over the world. ^ It is this which makes the short-lived Macedonian empire so important in universal history. Philip of Macedon. — Macedonia first rose to importance dur- ing the reign of Philip II. (359-336 B.C.), better known as Philip of Macedon. He was a man of pre-eminent ability, of wonderful 1 Of course it was rather the outer forms than the real inner life and spirit of the old Greek civilization which were adopted by the non-Hellenic peoples of Egypt and Western Asia. Hence the resulting culture is given a special name, Hellenism, which, in Professor Jebbs' language, means, — "not ^ being Hellenes,' or Greeks, but — 'doing like Hellenes'; and as the adjective an- swering to Hellas is Hellenic, so the adjective answering to Hellenism is Hellenistic,''^ J 60 PERIOD OF MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY. address in diplomacy, and possessed rare genius as an organizer and military chieftain. The art of war he had learned in youth as a hostage-pupil of Epaminondas of Thebes. He was the origi- nator of the " Macedonian phalanx," a body as renowned in the military history of Macedonia as is the " legion " in that of Rome. With his kingdom settled and consohdated at home, Philip's ambition led him to seek the leadership of the Grecian states. He sought to gain his purpose rather by artful diplomacy and in- trigue than by open force. In the use of these weapons he might have been the teacher of the Athenian Themistocles. The Second Sacred War (355-346 b.c). — Philip quickly ex- tended his power over a large part of Thrace and the Greek cities of Chalcidice, Meanwhile he was, in the following way, acquiring a commanding position in the affairs of the states of Greece proper. The Phocians had put to secular use some of the lands which, at the end of the First Sacred War (see p. 108), had been conse- crated to the Delphian xApollo. Taken to task and heavily fined for this act by the other members of the Delphian Amphictyony, the Phocians deliberately robbed the temple, and used the treas- ure in the maintenance of a large force of mercenary soldiers. The Amphictyons not being able to punish the Phocians for their im- piety, were forced to ask help of Phihp, who gladly rendered the assistance sought. The Phocians were now quickly subdued, their cities were de- stroyed, and the inhabitants scattered in villages and forced to pay tribute to the Delphian Apollo. The place that the Phocians had held in the Delphian Amphictyony was given to Philip, upon whom was also bestowed the privilege of presiding at the Pythian games. The position he had now secured was just what Philip had coveted, in order that he might use it to make himself master of all Greece. Battle of Chseronea (338 b.c). — Demosthenes at Athens was one' of the few who seemed to understand the real designs of Philip. His penetration, like that of Pericles, descried a cloud lowering over Greece — this time from the North. With all the PLAN TO INVADE ASIA. 161 energy of his wonderful eloquence, he strove to stir up the Athe- nians to resist the encroachments of the king of Macedon. He hurled against him his famous " Phihppics," speeches so filled with fierce denunciation that they have given name to all writings characterized by bitter criticism or violent invective. At length the Athenians and Thebans, aroused by the oratory of Demosthenes and by some fresh encroachments of the Mace- donians, united their forces, and met Philip upon the memorable field of Chseronea in Boeotia. The Macedonian phalanx swept everything before it. The Theban band was annihilated. The power and authority of Philip were now extended and acknowl- edged throughout Greece {2>Z^ b.c). Plan to invade Asia. — While the Greek states were divided among themselves, they were united in an undying hatred of the Persians. They were at this time meditating an enterprise fraught with the greatest importance to the history of the world. This was a joint expedition against Persia. The march of the Ten Thousand Greeks through the very heart of the dominions of the Great King had encouraged this national undertaking, and illus- trated the feasibility of the conquest of Asia. At a great council of the Grecian cities held at Corinth, Philip was chosen leader of this expedition. All Greece was astir with preparation. In the midst of all, Philip was assassinated during the festivities attending the marriage of his daughter, and his son Alexander succeeded to his place and power (336 B.C.). Accession of Alexander the Great. — Alexander was only twenty years of age when he came to his father's throne. The spirit of the man is shown in the complaint of the boy when news of his father's victories came to him : " Friends," said he to his play- mates, " my father will possess himself of everything and leave nothing for us to do." For about two years Alexander was busy suppressing revolts against his power among the different cities of Hellas, and chastis- ing hostile tribes on the northern frontiers of Macedonia. Thebes having risen against him, he razed the city to the ground, — spar- 162 PERIOD OF MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY. ing, however, the house of the poet Pindar, — and sold thirty thou- sand of the inhabitants into slavery. Thus was one of the most renowned of the cities of Greece blotted out of existence. Alexander crosses the Hellespont (334 b.c). — Alexander was now free to carry out his father's scheme in regard to the Asiatic expedition. In the spring of 334 B.C., he set out, at the head of an army numbering about thirty-five thousand men, for the con- THE BATTLE OF ISSUS. (From a Fresco found at Pompeii.) quest of the Persian empire. Now commenced one of the most remarkable and swiftly executed campaigns recorded in history. Crossing the Hellespont, Alexander routed the Persians at the important battle of the Granicus, by which victory all Asia Minor was laid open to the invader. The Battle of Issus (333 b.c). — At the northeast corner of the Mediterranean lies the plain of Issus. Here Alexander again defeated the Persian army, numbering six hundred thousand men. ss 60 ■lii ' ^'nyi 6s 70 80 85 50 DOMINIONS AND DEPENDENCIES OF ALEXANDER C.B.C.323. 45 ,* '^' nda O Q -D I A ^ ^ pabthia "Persepolis PERSI IS ^. f?^^ Ja -^- A^' .^^ CARM.ANIA 4 jiiirift ^ %¥^orum QEI>^^®-^' 5J 60 05 70 SIEGE OF TYRE, 163 The family of Darius, including his mother, wife, and children, fell into the hands of Alexander; but the king himself escaped from the field, and hastened to his capital, Susa, to raise another army to oppose the march of the conqueror. Siege of Tyre (332 b.c). — Before penetrating to the heart of the empire, Alexander turned to the south, in order to effect the subjugation of Phoenicia, that he might command the Phoenician fleets and prevent their being used to sever his communication with Greece. The island-city of Tyre, after a memorable siege, was taken by means of a mole, or causeway, built with incredible labor through the sea to the city. Eight thousand of the inhabi- tants were slain, and thirty thousand sold into slavery — a terrible warning to those cities that should dare to close their gates against the Macedonian. Alexander in Egypt. — With the cities of Phoenicia and the fleets of the Mediterranean subject to his control, Alexander easily effected the conquest of Egypt. The Egyptians, indeed, made no resistance to the Macedonians, but willingly exchanged masters. While in the country, Alexander founded, at one of the mouths of the Nile, a city called, after himself, Alexandria. The city became the meeting-place of the East and West ; and its import- ance through many centuries attests the far-sighted wisdom of its founder. A less worthy enterprise of the conqueror was his expedition to the oasis of Siwah, located in the Libyan desert, where were a cel- ebrated temple and oracle of Zeus Ammon. To gratify his own vanity, as well as to impress the superstitious barbarians, Alexander desired to be declared of celestial descent. The priests of the temple, in accordance with the wish of the king, gave out that the oracle pronounced Alexander to be the son of Zeus Ammon, and the destined ruler of the world. The Battle of Arbela (331 b.c). — From Egypt Alexander recommenced his march towards the Persian capital. He had received offers of peace from Darius, but to these he is said to have replied, " There cannot be two suns in the heavens." Push- 164 PERIOD OF MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY. ing on, he crossed the Euphrates and the Tigris without opposi- tion ; but upon the plain of Arbela, not far from ancient Nineveh, he found his further advance disputed by Darius with an immense army. Again the Macedonian phalanx " cut through the ranks of the Persians as a boat cuts through the waves." The fate of Darius has been already narrated in our story of the last of the Persian kings (see p. 82). The battle of Arbela was one of the decisive combats of history. It marked the end of the long struggle between the East and the West, between Persia and Greece, and prepared the way for the spread of Hellenic civilization over all Western Asia. Alexander at Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis. — From the field of Arbela Alexander marched south to Babylon, which opened its gates to him without opposition. • Susa was next entered by the conqueror. Here he seized incredible quantities of gold and silver (^57,000,000, it is said), the treasure of the Great King. From Susa Alexander's march was next directed to Persepolis, where he secured a treasure more than twice as great (^138,000,- 000) as that found at Susa. Upon Persepolis Alexander wreaked vengeance, for all Greece had suffered at the hands of the Per- sians. Many of the inhabitants were massacred, and others sold into slavery; while the palaces of the Persian kings were given to the flames. Alexander, having thus overthrown the power of Darius, now began to regard himself, not only as his conqueror, but as his suc- cessor, and was thus looked upon by the Persians. He assumed the pomp and state of an Oriental monarch, and required the most obsequious homage from all who approached him. His Greek and Macedonian companions, unused to paying such servile adula- tion to their king, were much displeased at Alexander's conduct, and from this time on to his death, intrigues and conspiracies were being constantly formed among them against his power and life. Conquest of Bactria. — Urged on by an uncontrollable desire to possess himself of the most remote countries of which any CONQ UES TS IN INDIA . 165 accounts had ever reached him, Alexander now led his army to the north, and, after subduing many tribes that dwelt about the Caspian Sea, boldly conducted his soldiers over the snowy passes of the Hindu Kush, and descended into the fair provinces of Bactria. During the years 329-328 B.C. Alexander conquered not only Bactria but Sogdiana, a country lying north of the Oxus. Among his captives here was a beautiful Bactrian princess, Roxana by name, who became his bride. Alexander's stay in Sogdiana was saddened by his murder of his dearest friend Clitus, who had saved his life at the Granicus. Both were flushed with wine when the quarrel arose ; after the deed, x'\lexander was overwhelmed with remorse. Conquests in India. — With the countries north of the Hindu Kush subdued and settled, Alexander recrossed the mountains, and led his army down upon the rich and crowded plains of India (327 B.C.). Here again he showed himself invincible, and received the submission of many of the native princes. . The most formidable resistance encountered by the Macedo- nians was offered by a strong and wealthy king named Porus. Captured at last and brought into the presence of Alexander, his proud answer to the conqueror's question as to how he thought he ought to be treated was, " Like a king." The impulsive Alexander gave him back his kingdom, to be held, however, subject to the Macedonian crown. Alexander's desire was to extend his conquests to the Ganges, but his soldiers began to murmur because of the length and hard- ness of their campaigns, and he reluctantly gave up the under- taking. To secure the conquests already made, he founded, at different points in the valley of the Indus, Greek towns and colo- nies. One of these he named Alexandria, after himself; another Bucephala, in memory of his favorite steed ; and still another Nicaea, for his victories. The modern museum at Lahore contains many relics of Greek art, dug up on the site of these Macedonian cities and camps. 166 EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. Alexander's return route lay through the ancient Gedrosia^ now Beluchistan, a region frightful with burning deserts^, amidst which his soldiers endured almost incredible privations and sufferings. After a trying and calamitous march of over two months, Alexander, with the survivors of his army, reached Carmania. Here, to his unbounded joy, he was joined by Nearchus, the trusted admiral of his fleet, whom he had ordered to explore the sea between the Indus and the Euphrates. To appropriately celebrate his conquests and discoveries, Alex- ander instituted a series of religious festivals, amidst which his soldiers forgot the dangers of their numberless battles and the hardships of their unparalleled marches, which had put to the test every power of human endurance. And well might these veterans glory in their achievements. In a few years they had conquered half the world, and changed the whole course of history. Plans and Death of Alexander. — As the capital of his vast empire, which now stretched from the Ionian Sea to the Indus, Alexander chose the ancient Babylon, upon the Euphrates. His designs were to push his conquests as far to the west as he had extended them to the east. Arabia, Carthage, Italy, and Spain were to be added to his already vast domains. Indeed, the plans of Alexander embraced nothing less than the union and Helleniz- ing of the world. Not only were the peoples of Asia and Europe to be blended by means of colonies, but even the floras of the two continents were to be intermingled by the transplanting of fruits and trees from one continent to the other. Common laws and customs, a common language and a common religion, were to unite the world into one great family. Intermarriages were to blend the races. Alexander himself married a daughter of Darius III., and also one of Artaxerxes Ochus ; and to ten thousand of his soldiers, whom he encouraged to take Asiatic wives, he gave magnificent gifts. In the midst of his vast projects, Alexander was seized by a fever, brought on by his insane excesses, and died at Babylon, 323 B.C., in the thirty-second year of his age. His soldiers could not RESULTS OF ALEXANDER'S CONQUESTS. 167 let him die without seeing him. The watchers of the palace were obliged to open the doors to them, and the veterans of a hundred battle-fields filed sorrowfully past the couch of their dying com- mander. His body was carried to Alexandria, in Egypt, and there enclosed in a golden coffin, and a splendid mausoleum was raised over it. His ambition for celestial honors was gratified in his death ; for in Egypt and elsewhere temples were dedicated to him, and divine worship was paid to his statues. We cannot deny to Alexander, in addition to a remarkable genius for military affairs, a profound and comprehensive intellect. He had fine tastes, and liberally encouraged art, science, and liter- ature. The artists of his times had in him a munificent patron ; and to his preceptor Aristotle he sent large collections of natural- history objects, gathered in his extended expeditions. He had a kind and generous nature : he avenged the murder of his enemy Darius ; and he repented in bitter tears over the body of his faith- ful Clitus. He exposed himself like the commonest soldier, shar- ing with his men the hardships of the march and the dangers of the battle-field. But he was self-seeking, foolishly vain, and madly ambitious of military glory. He plunged into shameful excesses, and gave way to bursts of passion that transformed a usually mild and generous disposition into the fury of a madman. The contradictions of his life cannot, perhaps, be better expressed than in the words once applied to the gifted Themistocles : " He was greater in genius than in character." Results of Alexander's Conquests. — The remarkable conquests of Alexander had far-reaching consequences. They ended the long struggle between Persia and Greece, and spread Hellenic civili- zation over Egypt and Western Asia. The distinction between Greek and Barbarian was obliterated, and the sympathies of men, hitherto so narrow and local, were widened, and thus an important preparation was made for the reception of the cosmopolitan creed of Christianity. The world was also given a universal language of 168 EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. culture, which was a further preparation for the spread of Christian teachings. But the evil effects of the conquest were also positive and far- reaching. The sudden acquisition by the Greeks of the enormous wealth of the Persian empire, and contact with the vices and the effeminate luxury of the Oriental nations, had a most demoralizing effect upon Hellenic hfe. Greece became corrupt, and she in turn corrupted Rome. Thus the civilization of antiquity was undermined. CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF GRECIAN HISTORY TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. Legendary Age . Early History of Sparta . . . Early History of Athens. . . Period of Grseco- Persian War . Period of Athenian supremacy Events of the Pelo- ponnesian War . Period of Spartan Supremacy The Trojan War, legendary date .... The Dorians enter the Peloponnesus, about Lycurgus gives laws to Sparta . . The Messenian Wars Rule of the Archons Rebellion of Cylon Legislation of Solon Pisistratus rules Expulsion of the Pisistratidce First Expedition of Darius (led by Mar- donius) Battle of Marathon Battle of Thermopylre Battle of Salamis Battles of Plataea and Mycale ..... Athens rebuilt Aristides chosen first president of the Con- federacy of Delos Themistocles sent into exile Ostracism of Cimon Pericles at the head of affairs — Periclean Age Beginning of the Peloponnesian War . . Pestilence at Athens Expedition against Syracuse Battle of ^gospotami Close of the War Rule of the Thirty Tyrants at Athens . . Expedition of the Ten Thousand .... Peace of Antalcidas Ohgarchy established at Thebes .... Spartan power broken on the field of Leuc- tra ........... . 1194-1184 1 104 850 750-650 1050-612 612 594 560-527 510 492 490 480 480 479 478 477 471 459 459-431 431 430 415 405 404 404-403 401-400 387 3S2 371 CIIR ONOL O GICAL S UMMAR Y. 169 Period of Theban Supremacy Period of Macedo- nian Supremacy. Battle of Leuctra, which secures the suprem- acy of Thebes 371 Battle of Mantinea and death of Epami- nondas 362 Battle of Chseronea 338 Death of Philip of Macedon 336 Alexander crosses the Hellespont . , . 334 Battle of Issus 333 Battle of Arbela , 331 Death of Alexander at Babylon .... 323 170 STATES FORMED FROM THE EMPIRE. CHAPTER XVII. STATES FORMED FROM THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. Division of the Empire of Alexander. — There was no one who could wield the sword that fell from the hand of Alexander. It is told that, when dying, being asked to whom the kingdoiii should belong, he replied, "To the strongest," and handed his signet ring to his general Perdiccas. But Perdiccas was not strong enough to master the difficulties of the situation.^ Indeed, who is strong enough to rule the world ? Consequently the vast empire created by Alexander's unparal- leled conquests was distracted by quarrels and wars, and before the close of the fourth century B.C., had become broken into many fragments. Besides minor states,^ four well-defined and important monarchies arose out of the ruins. After the rearrangement of boundaries that followed the decisive battle of Ipsus (fought in Phrygia 301 B.C.), these principal states had the outlines shown by the accompanying map. Their rulers were Lysimachus, Seleu- cus Nicator, Ptolemy, and Cassander, who had each assumed the title of king. The great horn being broken, in its place came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.^ 1 Perdiccas ruled as regent for Philip Arridaeue (an illegitimate brother of Alexander), who was proclaimed titular king. 2 Two of these lesser states, Rhodes and Pontus, deserve special notice : — Rhodes. — Rhodes became the head of a maritime confederation of the cities and islands along the coasts of Asia Minor, and thus laid the basis of a remarka- ble commercial prosperity and naval power. Pontus. — Pontus (Greek for sea), a state of Asia Minor,' was so called from its position upon the Euxine, It was never thoroughly conquered by the Macedonians. It has a place in history mainly because of the lustre shed upon it by the transcendent ability of one of its kings, Mithridates the Great (120-63 B.C.), who for a long time made successful resistance to the Roman arms. ^ Dan. viii. 8. r - -, r— r ss bo 6S 70 7S 80 S5 SO \ \ T KINGDOMS of the SUCCESSORS of ALEXANDER C. B. C. 300. Dominions of Ptolemy CH 45 V J /■ O F / Persepoljg jftti' acd'^' \ \ u vtva- ^p.MANlA' (3;EI5R0S1A ^^ ^ <^^^J 40 35 A io ^ ■ S5 A 55 60 OS 70 •?, ' " r ■• THRACE AND SYRIA. 171 Lysimachus held Thrace and the western part of Asia Minor ; Seleucus Nicator, Syria and the countries eastward to the Indus ; Ptolemy ruled Egypt ; and Cassander governed Macedonia, and claimed authority over Greece.^ After barely mentioning the fate of the kingdom of Lysimachus, we will trace very briefly the fortunes of the other three monarch- ies until they were overthrown, one after the other, by the now rapidly rising power of Rome. Thrace, or the Kingdom of Lysimachus. — The kingdom of Lysimachus soon disappeared. He was defeated by Seleucus in the year 281 B.C., and his dominions were divided. The lands in Asia Minor were joined to the Syrian kingdom, while Thrace was absorbed by Macedonia. Syria, or the Kingdom of the Seleucidse (312-63 b.c). — This kingdom, during the two centuries and more of its existence, played an important part in the political history of the world. Under its first king it comprised nominally almost all the countries of Asia conquered by Alexander, thus stretching from the Helles- pont to the Indus. Its rulers were called Seleucidae, from the founder of the kingdom, Seleucus Nicator. Seleucus Nicator (312-280 e.g.), besides being a ruler of unusual ability, was a most liberal patron of learning and art. He is declared to have been " the greatest founder of cities that ever lived." Throughout his dominions he founded a vast number, some of which endured for many centuries. Antioch, on the Orontes, in Northern Syria, became, after Seleucia on the Tigris, the capital of the kingdom, and obtained an influence and renown as a centre of population and trade which have given its name a sure place in history. The successors of Seleucus Nicator led the kingdom through checkered fortunes. On different sides provinces fell away and became independent states.^ Antiochus III. (223-187 B.C.), called 1 Cassander never secured complete control of Greece, hence this country is not included in his domains as these appear upon the map. - The most important of these were the following : — I. Pergamus. — This was a state in western Asia Minor, which became 172 STATES FORMED FROM THE EMPIRE. COIN OF ANTIOCHUS III. (THE GREAT). "the Great," raised the kingdom for a short time into great prom- inence- ; but attempting to make conquests in Europe, and further, giving asylum to the Cartha- ginian general Hannibal, he in- curred the fatal hostility of Rome. Quickly driven by the Roman legions across the Hel- lespont, he was hopelessly defeated at the battle of Magnesia (190 B.C.). After this, the Syrian kingdom was of very little importance in the world's affairs. At last, brought again into collision with Rome, the country was overrun by Pompey the Great, and be- came a part of the Roman Republic, 63 B.C. Kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt (323- 30 B.C.). — The Grgeco- Egyptian empire of the Ptolem.ies was by far the most impor- tant, in its influence upon the civilization of the world, of all the kingdoms that owed their origin to the conquests of Alexander. The founder of the house and dynasty was Ptolemy L, surnamed Soter (323-283 b.c), one of Alexander's ablest generals. His de- scendants ruled in Egypt for nearly three centuries, a most impor- tant period in the intellectual life of the world. Under Ptolemy independent upon the death of Seleucus Nicator (280 B.C.). Favored by the Romans, it gradually grew into a powerful kingdom, which at one time embraced a considerable part of Asia Minor. Its capital, also called Perga- mus, became a most noted centre of Greek learning and civilization. 2. Parthia. — Parthia was a powerful Turanian state that grew up east of the Euphrates River (from about 255 B.C. to 226 A.D.). Its kings were at first formidable enemies of the rulers of Syria, and later of the Romans, whom they never allowed to make any considerable conquest beyond the Euphrates. PTOLEMY SOTER. KINGDOM OF THE PTOLEMIES. 173 I., Alexandria became the great depot of exchange for the pro- ductions of the world. At the entrance of the harbor stood the Pharos, or hght-house, — the first structure of its kind, — ■ which Ptolemy built to guide the fleets of the world to his capital. This edifice was reckoned one of the Seven Wonders. But it was not alone the exchange of material products that was comprehended in Ptolemy's scheme. His aim was to make his capital the intellectual centre of the world — the place where the arts, sciences, literatures, and even the religions, of the world should meet and mingle. He founded the famous Museum, a sort of col- lege, which became the "University of the East," and established the renowned Alexandrian Library. Poets, artists, philosophers, and teachers in all departments of learning were encouraged to settle in Alexandria by the conferring of immunities and privileges, and by gifts and munificent patronage. His court embraced the learning and genius of the age. Ptolemy II., Philadelphus (283-247 B.C.), followed closely in the footsteps of his father, carrying out, as far as possible, the plans and policies of the preceding reign. Under his successor, Ptol- emy HI., Euergetes (247-242 B.C.), the dominions of the Ptolemies touched their widest limits ; while the capital Alexandria reached the culminating point in her fame as the centre of Hellenistic civihzation. Altogether the Ptolemies reigned in Egypt almost exactly three centuries (323-30 B.C.). Those rulers who held the throne for the last two hundred years were, with few exceptions, a succession of monsters, such as even Rome in her worst days could scarcely equal. The usage of intermarriage among the members of the royal family, — a usage in which the Ptolemies followed what was a custom of the ancient Pharaohs, — led to endless family quarrels, which resulted in fratricide, matricide, and all the dark deeds in- cluded in the calendar of royal crime. The story of the renowned Cleopatra, the last of the house of the Ptolemies, will be told in connection with Roman history, to which it properly belongs. Macedonia and Greece. — From the time of the subjection of 174 STATES FORMED FROM THE EMPIRE. Greece by Philip and Alexander to the absorption of Macedonia into the growing dominions of Rome, the Greek cities of the penin- sula were very much under the control or influence of the Mace- donian kings. But the Greeks were never made for royal subjects, and consequently they were in a state of chronic revolt against this foreign authority. Thus, no sooner had they heard of the death of Alexander than several of the Grecian states rose against the Macedonian general Antipater, and carried on with him what is known as the Lamian War (323-321 B.C.). The struggle ended disastrously for the Greeks, and Demosthenes, who had been the soul of the move- ment, was forced to flee from Athens. He took refuge upon an island just off the coast of the Peloponnesus ; but being still hunted by Antipater, he put an end to his own life by means of poison. THE DYING GAUL. The next matter of moment in the history of Macedonia, was an invasion of the Gauls (279 B.C.), kinsmen of the Celtic tribes that about a century before this time had sacked the city of Rome. These savage marauders inflicted terrible suffering upon both Mace- donia and Greece. But they were at last expelled from Europe, and setthng in Asia Minor, they there gave name to the province of Galatia. The celebrated Greek sculpture, The Dying Gaul, CONCLUSION. 175 popularly but erroneously called The Dying Gladiator, is a most interesting memorial of this episode in Greek history. Macedonia finally came in contact with a new enemy — the great mihtary republic of the West. For lending aid to Carthage in the Second Punic War, she incurred the anger of Rome, which resulted, after much intrigue and hard fighting, in the country being brought into subjection to the Italian power. In the year 146 B.C. it was erected into a Roman province. The political affairs of Greece proper during the period we are considering were chiefly comprehended in the fortunes of two con- federacies, or leagues, one of which was called the Achaean, and the other the yEtolian League. United, these two confederacies might have maintained the political independence of Greece ; but that spirit of dissension which we have seen to be the bane of the Hellenic peoples caused them to become, in the hands of intrigu- ing Rome, weapons first for crushing Macedonia, and then for grinding each other to pieces. Finally, in the year 146 B.C., the splendid city of Corinth was taken by the Roman army and laid in ashes. This was the last act in the long and varied drama of the political life of ancient Greece. Henceforth it constituted simply a portion of the Roman Empire. Conclusion. — We have now traced the political fortunes of the Hellenic race through about seven centuries of authentic history. In succeeding chapters it will be our pleasanter task to trace the more brilliant and worthy fortunes of the artistic and intellectual life of Hellas, — to portray, though necessarily in scanty outline, the achievements of that wonderful genius which enabled her, " cap- tured, to lead captive her captor." 176 GREEK A R ClIirE C T URE. CHAPTER XVIII. GREEK ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE, AND PAINTING. The Greek Sense of Beauty. — The Greeks were artists by nature. "Ugliness gave them pain Uke a blow." Everything they made was beautiful. Beauty they placed next to holiness ; indeed, they almost or quite made beauty and right the same thing. They are said to have thought it strange that Socrates was good, seeing he was so unprepossessing in appearance. PELASGIAN MASONRY. I. Architecture. Pelasgian Architecture. — The term Pelasgian is apphed to various structures of massive masonry found in different parts of Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor. The origin of these works was a mystery to the earliest Hellenes, who ascribed them to a race of giants called Cyclops ; hence the name Cyclopean that also attaches to them. These works exhibit three well-defined stages of development. ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE, 177 In the earliest and rudest structures the stones are gigantic in size and untouched by the chisel ; in the next oldest the stones are worked into irregular polygonal blocks ; while in the latest the blocks are cut into rectangular shapes and laid in regular courses. The walls of the old citadels or castles of several Grecian cities exhibit specimens of this primitive architecture (see p. 90). Orders of Architecture. — There are three styles, or orders, of Grecian architecture — the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. They are distinguished from one another chiefly by differences in the proportions and ornamentation of the column. DORIC CAPITAL. IONIC CAPITAL. The Doric column is without a base, and has a simple and mas- sive capital. At first the Doric temples of the Greeks were almost as massive as the Egyptian temples, but later they became more refined. The Ionic column is characterized by the spiral volutes of the capital. This form was borrowed from the Assyrians, and was principally employed by the Greeks of Ionia, whence its name. The Corinthian order is distinguished by its rich capital, formed of acanthus leaves. This type is made up of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Grecian elements. The addition of the acanthus leaves is said to have been suggested to the artist Callimachus by the pretty effect of a basket surrounded by the leaves of an acanthus plant, upon which it had accidentally fallen. The entire structure was made to harmonize with its supporting 178 GREEK ARCHITECTURE. CORINTHIAN CAPITAL. columns. The general characteristics of the several orders are well portrayed by the terms we use when we speak of the "stern" Doric, the "graceful" Ionic, ^and the " ornate " Corinthian. Temple of Diana at Ephe- sus. — The temple of Diana at Ephesus was regarded as one of the wonders of the world. The original struc- ture was commenced about the beginning of the sixth century B.C., and, according to Pliny, was one hundred and twenty years in process of building. Croesus gave liberally of his wealth to or- nament the shrine. In the year 356 B.C., on the same night, it is said, that Alexander was born, an ambitious youth, named Herostratus, fired the building, simply to immortahze his name. Alexander offered to rebuild the temple, provided that he be allowed to inscribe his name upon it. The Ephesians gracefully declined the proposal by replying that it was not right for one deity to erect a temple to another. Alexander was obliged to content himself with placing within the shrine his own portrait by Apelles — a piece of work which cost ^30,000. The value of the gifts to the temple was beyond all calculation : kings and states vied with one another in splendid donations. Painters and sculptors were eager to have their masterpieces assigned a place within its walls, so that it became a great national gallery of paintings and statuary. So inviolable was the sanctity of the temple that at all times, and especially in times of tumult and danger, property and treas- ures were carried to it as a safe repository.^ But the riches of the 1 The Grecian temples were, in a certain sense, banks of deposit. They contained special chambers or vaults for the safe-keeping of valuables. The THE DELPHIAN TEMPLE. 179 sanctuary proved too great a temptation to the Roman emperor Nero. He risked incurring the anger of the great Diana, and robbed the temple of many statues and a vast amount of gold. Later (in 262 a.d.), the barbarian Goths enriched themselves with the spoils of the shrine, and left it a ruin. The Delphian Temple. — The first temple erected at Delphi over the spot whence issued the mysterious vapors (see. p. 105) was a rude wooden structure. In the year 548 B.C., the temple then standing was destroyed by fire. All the cities and states of Hellas contributed to its rebuilding. Even the king of Egypt, Amasis, sent a munificent gift. More than half a million of dollars was collected ; for the temple was to exceed in magnificence anything the world had yet seen. It will be recalled that the Athenian Alcmaeonidae were the contractors who undertook the rebuilding of the shrine (see p. 122). The temple was crowded with the spoils of many battle-fields, with the rich gifts of kings, and with rare works of art. Like the temple at Ephesus, the Delphian shrine, after remaining for many years secure, through the awe and reverence which its oracle inspired, suffered frequent spoliation. The greed of conquerors overcame all religious scruples. The Phocians robbed the temple of a treasure equivalent, it is estimated, to more than $10,000,000 with us (see p. 160) ; and Nero plundered it of five hundred bronze images. But Constantine (emperor of Rome 306-337 a.d., heaps of gold and silver relics discovered by Di Cesnola at Sunium, in the island of Cyprus, were found in the secret subterranean vaults of a great temple. The priests often loaned out on interest the money deposited with them, the revenue from this source being added to that from the leased lands of the tem- ple and from the tithes of war booty, to meet the expenses of the services of the shrine. Usually the temple property in Greece was managed solely by the priests; but the treasure of the Parthenon at Athens formed an exception to this rule. The treasure here belonged to the state, and was controlled and disposed of by the vote of the people. Even the personal property of the god- dess, the gold drapery of the statue (see p. 185), which was worth about $600,- 000, could be used in case of great need, but it must be replaced in due time, with a fair interest. 180 GREEK ARCHITECTURE. and founder of Constantinople) was the Nebuchadnezzar who bore off the sacred vessels and many statues as trophies to his new capital then rising on the Hellespont. The Athenian Acropolis and the Parthenon. — In the history of art there is no other spot in the world possessed of such in- terest as the flat-topped rock, already described (see p. i88), which constituted the Athenian Acropohs. We have seen that in early times the eminence was used as a stronghold. But by the fifth century B.C. the city had slipped down upon the plain, and the summit of the rock was consecrated to the temples and the worship of the deities, and came to be called '' the city of the gods." During the period of Athenian supremacy, especially in ATHENIAN YOUTH IN PROCESSION. (From the Frieze of the Parthenon.) the Periclean Age, Hellenic genius and piety adorned this spot with temples and statues that all the world has pronounced to be faultless specimens of beauty and taste. The most celebrated of the buildings upon the Acropolis was the Parthenon, the " Residence of the virgin-goddess Athena." This is considered the finest specimen of Greek architecture. It was designed by the architect Ictinus, but the sculptures that adorned it were the work of the celebrated Phidias.^ It was built 1 The subject of the wonderful frieze running round the temple was the pro- cession which formed the most important feature of the Athenian festival [81 182 GREEK ARCHITECTURE. in the Doric order, of marble from the neighboring PenteUcus. After standing for more than two thousand years, and having served successively as a Pagan temple, a Christian church, and a Moham- medan mosque, it finally was made to serve as a Turkish powder- magazine, in a war with the Venetians, in 1687. During the progress of this contest a bomb fired the magazine, and more than half of this masterpiece of ancient art was shivered into fragments. The front is nearly perfect, and is the most prominent feature of the Acropohs at the present time. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. — This structure was another of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was a monumental tomb designed to preserve the memory of Mausolus, king of Caria, who died 353 B.C. Its erection was prompted by the love and grief of his wife Artemisia. The combined genius of the most noted artists of the age executed the wish of the queen. It is the traditions of this beautiful structure that have given the world a name for all magnificent monuments raised to perpetuate the memory of the dead. Theatres. — The most noted of Greek theatres was the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, which was the model of all the others. It was semi-circular in form, and was partly cut in the rock on the southeastern slope of the Acropolis, the Greeks in the construction of their theatres generally taking advantage of a hillside. There were about one hundred rows of seats, the lowest one, bordering the orchestra, consisting of sixty-seven marble arm-chairs. The structure would hold thirty thousand spectators. 2. Sculpture and Painting. Progress in Sculpture: Influence of the Gymnastic Art. — Wood was the material first employed by the Greek artists. About known as the Great Panathensea, which was celebrated every four years in honor of the patron-goddess of Athens. The larger part of the frieze is now in the British Museum, the Parthenon having been despoiled of its coronal of sculptures by Lord Elgin. Read Lord Byron's The Curse of Minerva. To the poet, Lord Elgin's act appeared worse than vandalism. (5 184 SCULPTURE AND- PAINTING. the eighth century B.C. bronze and marble were generally substi- tuted for the less durable material. With this change sculpture began to make rapid progress. But what exerted the most positive influence upon Greek sculpture was the gymnastic art. The exercises of the gymnasium and the contests of the sacred games afforded the artist unri- valled opportunities for the study of the human form. '' The whole race," as Symonds says, "lived out its sculpture and its painting, rehearsed, as it were, the great works of Phidias and Polygnotus, in physical exercises, before it learned to express itself in marble or in color." As the sacred buildings in- creased in number and costliness, the services of the artist were called into requisition for their adornment. At first the temple held only the statue of the god ; but after a time it became, as we have already seen, a sort of na- tional museum. The entablature, the pediments, and every niche of the interior of the shrine, as well as the surrounding grounds and groves, were peopled with statues and groups of figures, ex- ecuted by the most renowned artists, and representing the national deities, the legendary heroes, victors at the public games, or inci- dents in the life of the state in which piety saw the special inter- position of the god in whose honor the shrine had been reared. Phidias. — Among all the great sculptors of antiquity, Phidias stands pre-eminent. He was an Athenian, and was born about 488 B.C. He delighted in the beautiful myths and legends of the PITCHING THE DISCUS, OR QUOIT (Discobolus.) PHIDIAS. 185 Heroic Age, and from these he drew subjects for his art. It was his genius that created the wonderful figures of the pediments and the frieze of the Parthenon. The most celebrated of his colos- sal sculptures were the statue of Athena within the Parthenon, and that of Olympian Zeus in the temple at Olympia. The statue of Athena was of gigantic size, being about forty feet in height, and was con- structed of ivory and gold, the hair, weapons, and drapery being of the latter material. The statue of Olympian Zeus was also of ivory and gold. It was sixty feet high, and represented the god seated on his throne. The hair, beard, and drapery were of gold. The eyes were brilliant stones. Gems of great value decked the throne, and figures of exquisite design were sculptured on the gold- en robe. The colossal proportions of this wonderful work, as well as the lofty yet benign aspect of the countenance, harmonized well with the popular conception of the maj- ^^'' ^ statue found at Athens in 1880 which ^ ^ i -' IS supposed to be a copy of the colossal esty and grace of the " father of statue of Athena by Phidias, de- T T ^,^ -r 11 scribed in the text. gods and men. It was thought a great misfortune to die without having seen the Olympian Zeus.^ ^ Phidias avowed that he took his idea from the representation which Homer gives in the first book of the Iliad \n the passage thus translated by Pope : — ATHENA PARTHENOS. 186 SCULPTURE AND PAINTING. The statue was in existence for eight hundred years, being finally destroyed by fire in the fifth century a.d. Phidias also executed other works in both bronze and marble. He met an unworthy fate. Upon the famous shield at the feet of the statue of Athena in the Parthenon, among the figures in the represen- tation of a battle between the Athe- nians and the Amazons, Phidias introduced a portrait of himself and also one of his patron Pericles. The enemies of the artist caused HEAD OF THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS BY him to be prosccutcd for this, which PHIDIAS. was considered an act of sacrilege. He died in prison (432 B.C.). Polycletus. — At the same time that Phidias was executing his ideal representations of the gods, Polycletus the elder, whose home was at Argos, was producing his renowned bronze statues of ath- letes. Among his pieces was one representing a spear-bearer, which was so perfect as to be known as "the Rule." Praxiteles. — This artist, after Polycletus, stands next to Phid- ias as one of the most eminent of Greek sculptors. His works were executed during the fourth century b.c. Among his chief pieces may be mentioned the " Cnidian Aphrodite." This stood in the Temple of Aphrodite at Cnidus, and was regarded by the ancients as the most perfect embodiment of the goddess of beauty. Pilgrimages were made from distant countries to Cnidus for the sake of looking upon the matchless statue. Lysippus. — This artist is renowned for his works in bronze. ' He spake, and awful bends his sable brow, Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod, The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god. High heaven with reverence the dread signal took, And all Olympus to the centre shook." Bulfinch's Age of Fable. THE RHODIAN COLOSSUS. 187 s He flourished about the middle of the fourth century B.C. His statues were in great demand. Many of these were of colossal size. Alexander gave the artist many orders for statues of him- self, and also of the heroes that fell in his campaigns. THE LAOCOON GROUP. The Rhodian Colossus and Schools of Art. — The most noted pupil of Lysippus was Chares, who gave to the world the cele- brated Colossus at Rhodes (about 280 b.c). This was another of the wonders of the world. Its height was about one hundred and 188 ' SCULPTURE AND PAINTING. fifty feet, and a man could barely encircle with his arms the thmnb of the statue.^ After standing little more than half a century, it was overthrown by an earthquake. For nine hundred years the Colossus then lay, like a Homeric god, prone upon the ground. Finally, the Arabs, having overrun this part of the Orient (a.d. 672), appropriated the statue, and thriftily sold it to a Jewish mer- chant. It is said that it required a train of nine hundred camels to bear away the bronze. This gigantic piece of statuary was not a solitary one at Rhodes ; for that city, next after Athens, was the great art centre of the Grecian world. Its streets and gardens and pubhc edifices were literally crowded with statues. The island became the favorite resort of artists, and the various schools there founded acquired a wide renown. Many of the most prized works of Grecian art in our modern museums were executed by members of these Rhodian schools. The " Laocoon Group," found at Rome in 1506, and now in the Museum of the Vatican, is generally thought to be the work of three Rhodian sculptors. Greek Painting. — Although the Greek artists attained a high degree of excellence in painting, still they probably never brought the art to the perfection which they reached in sculpture. One reason for this was that paintings were never, like statues, objects of adoration ; hence less attention was directed to them. With the exception of antique vases and a few patches of mural decoration, all specimens of Greek painting have perished. Con- sequently our knowledge of Greek painting is derived chiefly from the descriptions of renowned works, by the ancient writers, and their anecdotes of great painters. Polygnotus. — Polygnotus (flourished 475-455 B.C.) has been cafled the Prometheus of painting, because he was the first to give fire and animation to the expression of the countenance. " In his hand," it is affirmed, " the human features became for the first 1 The statue was about the size of the Statue of Liberty in New York har- bor. The height of the latter is 151 feet. , ZEUXIS AND PARRHASIUS. 1S9 time the mirror of the soul." Of a Polyxena^ painted by this great master, it was said that " she carried in her eyehds the whole history of the Trojan War." Zeuxis and Parrhasius. — These great artists lived and painted about 400 B.C. A favorite and familiar story preserves their names as companions, and commemorates their rival genius. Zeuxis, such is the story, painted a cluster of grapes which so closely imi- tated the real fruit that the birds pecked at them. His rival, for his piece, painted a curtain. Zeuxis asked Parrhasius to draw aside the veil and exhibit his picture. " I confess I am surpassed," generously admitted Zeuxis to his rival ; ^' I deceived birds, but you have deceived the eyes of an experienced artist." Apelles. — Apelles, who has been called the " Raphael of an- tiquity," was the court-painter of Alexander the Great. He was such a consummate master of the art of painting, and carried it to such a state of perfection, that the ancient writers spoke of it as the "art of Apelles." That Apelles, like Zeuxis and Parrhasius, painted life-like pictures is shown by the following story. In a contest between him and some rival artists, horses were the objects represented. Perceiving that the judges were unfriendly to him, and partial, Apelles insisted that less prejudiced judges should pronounce upon the merit of the respective pieces, demanding, at the same time, that the paint- ings should be shown to some horses that were near. When brought before the pictures of his rival, the horses exhibited no concern ; but upon being shown the painting of Apelles, they manifested by neighing and other intelligent signs their instant recognition of the companions the great master had created. 1 Polyxena was a daughter of the Trojan Priam, famous for her beauty and her sufiferings. 190 GREEK LITERATURE. CHAPTER XIX. GREEK LITERATURE. I. Epic and Lyric Poetry. The Greeks as Literary Artists. — It was that same exquisite sense of fitness and proportion and beauty which made the Greeks artists in marble that also made them artists in language. " Of all the beautiful things which they created," says Professor Jebb, '' their own language was the most beautiful." This language they wrought into epics, lyrics, dramas, histories, and orations as in- comparable in form and beauty as their temples and statues. The Homeric Poems. — The earliest specimens of Greek poetry are the so-called " Homeric poems," consisting of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The subject of the Iliad (from Ilios, Troy) is the " Wrath of Achilles." The Odyssey tells of the long wanderings of the hero Odysseus (Ulysses) up and down over many seas while seeking his native Ithaca, after the downfall of Ilios. These poems exerted an incalculable influence upon the literary and religious life of the Hellenic race. The Iliad must be pronounced the world's greatest epic. It has been translated into all languages, and has been read with an ever fresh interest by generation after generation for nearly three thousand years. Alexander slept with a copy beneath his pillow, — a copy prepared especially for him by his preceptor Aristotle, and called the " casket edition," from the jewelled box in which Alexander is said to have kept it. We preserve it quite as sacredly in all our courses of classical study. The poem has made warriors as well as poets. It incited the military ambition of Alexander, of Hannibal, and of Caesar ; it inspired Virgil, Dante, and Milton. All epic writers have taken it as their model. THE HOMERIC POEMS. 191 Date and Authorship of the Homeric Poems. — Until the rise of modern German criticism, the Iliad and the Odyssey were almost universally ascribed to a sin- gle bard named Homer, who was believed to have lived about the middle of the ninth or tenth century B.C., one or two centuries after the events commemorated in his poems. Though tradition represents many cities as contending for the honor of having been his birthplace, still he was gen- erally regarded as a native of Smyrna, in Asia Minor. He travelled widely (so it was believed), lost his sight, and then, as a wandering minstrel, sang his immortal verses to admiring listeners in the different cities of Hellas. But it is now the opinion of many scholars that the Iliad and the Odyssey, as they stand to-day, are not, either of them, the creation of a single poet. They are believed to be mosaics ; that is, to be built up out of the fragments of an extensive ballad litera- ture that grew up in an age preceding the Homeric. The " Wrath of Achilles," which forms the nucleus of the Iliad as we have it, may, with very great probability, be ascribed to Homer, whom we may believe to have been the most prominent of a brotherhood of bards who flourished about 850 or 750 B.C. The Hesiodic Poems. — Hesiod, who lived a century or more after the age that gave birth to the Homeric poems, was the poet of nature and of real life, especially of peasant life, in the dim transition age of Hellas. The Homeric bards sing of the deeds of heroes, and of a far-away time when gods mingled with men. HOMER. 192 GREEK LITERATURE. Hesiod sings of common men, and of every-day, present duties. His greatest poem, a didactic epic, is entitled Works and Days. This is, in the main, a sort of farmers' calendar, in which the poet points out to the husbandman the lucky and unlucky days for doing certain kinds of work, eulogizes industry, and intersperses among all his practical lines homely maxims of morality and beauti- ful descriptive passages of the changing seasons. Lyric Poetry : Pindar. — The ^olian island of Lesbos was the hearth and home of the earlier lyric poets. Among the earliest of the Lesbian singers was the poetess Sappho, whom the Greeks exalted to a place next to Homer. Plato calls her the Tenth Muse. Although her fame endures, her poetry, except some mere frag- ments, has perished. Anacreon was a courtier at the time of the Greek tyrannies. He was a native of Ionia, but passed much of his time at the court of Polycrates of Samos. He seems to have enjoyed to the full the gay and easy life of a courtier, and sung so voluptuously of love and wine and festivity that the term " Anacreontic " has come to be used to characterize all poetry over-redolent of these themes. But the greatest of the Greek lyric poets, and perhaps the greatest of all lyric poets of every age and race, was Pindar (about 522-443 B.C.). He was born at Thebes, but spent most of his time in the cities of Magna Grgecia. Such was the reverence in which his memory was held that when Alexander, one hundred years after Pindar's time, levelled the city of Thebes to the ground on account of a revolt, the house of the poet was spared, and left standing amid the general ruin (see p. 161) . The greater number of Pindar's poems were inspired by the scenes of the national festi- vals. They describe in lofty strains the splendors of the Olympian chariot-races, or the glory of the victors at the Isthmian, the Nemean, or the Pythian games. Pindar insists strenuously upon virtue and self-culture. With deep meaning he says, " Become that which thou art ; " that is, be that which you are made to be. THE GREEK DRAMA. 193 2. The Drama and Dramatists. Origin of the Greek Drama. — The Greek drama, in both its branches of tragedy and comedy, grew out of the songs and dances instituted in honor of the god of wine — Dionysus (the same as the Roman Bacchus). Tragedy (goat- song, probably from the accompanying sacrifice of a goat) sprang from the graver songs, and comedy (village- song) from the lighter and more farcical ones. Gradually, recital and dialogue were added, there being at first but a single speaker, then two, and finally three, which last was the classical number. Thespis (about 536 B.C.) is said to have introduced this im- provement ; hence the term "Thespian" applied to the tragic drama. Owing to its origin, the Greek drama al- ways retained a relig- ious character, and further, presented two distinct features, the chorus (the songs and dances) and the dialogue. At first, the chorus was the all-important part ; but later, the dialogue became the more prominent portion, the chorus, however, always remaining an essential feature of the performance. Finally, in the golden age of the Attic stage, the chorus dancers and singers were care- fully trained, at great expense, and the dialogue became the master- piece of some great poet, — and then the Greek drama, the most splendid creation of human genius, was complete. The Three Great Tragic Poets. — There are three great names m Greek tragedy, — y^schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. These dramatists all wrote during the splendid period which followed the victories of the Persian war, when the intellectual Hfe of all Hellas, BACCHIC PROCESSION. 194 GREEK LITERATURE, and especially that of Athens, was strung to the highest tension. This lent nervous power and intensity to almost all they wrote, particularly to the tragedies o.f yEschylus and Sophocles. Of the two hundred and more dramas produced by these poets, only thirty-two have escaped the accidents of time. yEschylus (525-456 B.C.) knew how to touch the hearts of the generation that had won the victories of the Persian war ; for he had fought with honor at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea. But it was on a very different arena that he was destined to win his most enduring fame. Eleven times did he carry off the prize in tragic composition. The Athenians called him the " Father of Tragedy." The central idea of his dramas is that " no mortal may dare raise his heart too high," — that " Zeus tames excessive lifting up of heart." Pro- metheus Bound is one of his chief works. Another of his great trage- dies is Agametnnon, thought by some to be his masterpiece. The subject is the crime of Clytemnestra (see p. 96) . It is a tragedy crowded with spirit-shaking terrors, and filled with more than human crimes and woes. Nowhere is portrayed with greater power the awful vengeance with which the implacable Nemesis is armed. Sophocles (495-405 B.C.) while yet a youth gained the prize in a poetic contest with y^schylus. Plutarch says that ^^schylus was so chagrined by his defeat that he left Athens and retired to Sicily. Sophocles now became the leader of tragedy at Athens. In almost every contest he carried away the first prize. He lived through nearly a century, a century, too, that comprised the most brilliant period of the hfe of Hellas. His dramas were perfect works of art. The leading idea of his pieces is the same as that which characterizes those of ^^schylus ; namely, that self-will /ESCHYLUS. GREEK DRAMATISTS. 195 and insolent pride arouse the righteous indignation of tlie gods, and that no mortal can contend successfully against the will of Zeus. Euripides (485-406 fj.c.) was a more popular drama- tist than either ^schylus or Sophocles. His fame passed far beyond the limits of Greece. Herodotus asserts that the verses of the poet were recited by the natives of the remote country of Ge- drosia; and Plutarch says that the Sicilians were so fond of his lines that many of the Athenian prisoners, taken before Syracuse, bought their liberty by teaching their mas- ters his verses. Comedy: Aristophanes. — Foremost among all writers of comedy must be placed Aristophanes (about 444- 380 B.C.). He introduces us to the every- day life of the least admirable classes of Athenian society. Four of his most noted works are the Clouds, the Knights^ the Birds, and the Wasps. In the comedy of the Clouds, Aristophanes especially ridicules the Sophists, a school of philosophers and teachers just then rising into prominence at Athens, of whom the satirist unfairly makes Socrates the representative. The aim of the Knights was the punishment and ruin of Cleon, SOPHOCLES. 196 GREEK LITERATURE. whom we already know as one of the most conceited and insolent of the demagogues of Athens. The play of the Birds is " the everlasting allegory of foohsh sham and flimsy ambition." It was aimed particularly at the ambitious Sicihan schemes of Alcibiades ; for at the time the play appeared, the Athenian army was before Syracuse, and elated by good news daily ar- riving, the Athenians were building the most gorgeous air-castles, and indulging in the most extravagant day-dreams of universal dominion. In the Wasps, the poet satirizes the proceedings in the Athenian law- courts, by showing how the great citizen-juries, numbering sometimes five or six hundred, were befooled by the demagogues. But Aris- tophanes was something more than a master of mere mirth-pro- voking satire and ridicule : many of the choruses of his pieces are inexpressibly tender and beautiful. EURIPIDES. HERODOTUS. 3. History and Historians. Poetry is the first form of literary expression among all peoples. So we must not be sur- prised to find that it was not until several centu- ries after the composition of the Homeric poems — that is, about the sixth century B.C. — that prose-writing appeared among the Greeks. His- torical composition was then first cultivated. We can speak briefly of only three historians, — Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, — whose names were cherished among the an- cients, and whose writings are highly valued and carefully studied by ourselves. HERODOTUS. 197 Herodotus. — Herodotus (about 484-402 b.c), born at Hali- carnassus, in Asia Minor, is called the "Father of History." He travelled over much of the then known world, visiting Italy, Egypt, and Babylonia, and as an eye-witness describes with a never- failing vivacity and freshness the wonders of the different lands he had seen. Herodotus lived in a story-telling age, and he is him- self an inimitable story-teller. To him we are indebted for a large part of the tales of antiquity — stories of men and events which we never tire of repeating. He was over-credulous, and was often imposed upon by his guides in Egypt and at Babylon ; but he describes with great care and accuracy what he himself saw. It is sometimes very difficult, however, to determine just what he actu- ally did see with his own eyes and experience in his own person ; for it seems certain that, following the custom of the story-tellers of his time, he often related as his own personal adventures the experiences of others, yet with no thought of deceiving. In this he might be likened to our modern writers of historical romances. The central theme of his great History is the Persian wars, the struggle between Asia and Greece. Around this he groups the several stories of the nations of antiquity. In the, pictures which the artist-historian draws, we see vividly contrasted, as in no other writings, the East and the West, Persia and Hellas. Thucydides. — Thucydides (about 471-400 b.c), though not so popular an historian as Herodo- tus, was a much more philosophical one. He was born near Athens. A pretty story is told of his youth, which must be repeated, though critics have pronounced it fabulous. The tale is that Thucydides, when only fifteen, was taken by his father to hear Herodotus recite his history at the Olympian games, and that the reading and the accompanying applause caused the boy to shed tears, and to resolve to become an historian. Thucydides was engaged in military service during the first years of the Peloponnesian War ; but, on account of his being THUCYDIDES. 193 GREEK LITERATURE. unfortunate, possibly through his own neglect, the Athenians de- prived him of his command, and he went into an exile of twenty years. It is to this circumstance that we are indebted for his inval- uable History of the War between the Peloponnesimis and the Athenians. Through the closest observation and study, he qualified himself to become the historian of what he from the first foresaw would prove a memorable war. " I lived," he says, " through its whole extent, in the very flower of my understanding and strength, and with a close application of my thoughts, to gain an exact insight into all its occurrences." He died before his task was completed. The work is considered a model of historical writing. Demos- thenes read and re-read his writings to improve his own style ; and the greatest orators and historians of modern times have been equally diligent students of the work of the great Athenian. Xenophon. — Xenophon (about 445-355 ^-C-) was an Athe- nian, and is known both as a general and a writer. The works that render his name so familiar are his Anabasis, a simple yet thrilling narrative of the Expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks ; and his Memorabilia, or Recollections of Socrates. This work by his devoted pupil is the most faithful portraiture that we possess of that philosopher. 4. Oratory. Influence of the Public Assembly. — The art of oratory among the Greeks was fostered and developed by the democratic char- acter of their institutions. The public assemblies of the demo- cratic cities were great debating clubs, open to all. The gift of eloquence secured for its possessor a sure pre-eminence. The law-courts, too, especially the great jury-courts of Athens, were schools of oratory ; for every citizen was obliged to be his own advocate and to defend his own case. Hence the attention be- stowed upon public speaking, and the high degree of perfecdon attained by the Greeks in the difficult art of persuasion. Almost all the prominent Athenian statesmen were masters of oratory. THEMIS TO CLE S AND PERICLES. 199 Themistocles and Pericles. — We have already become ac- quainted with Themistocles and Pericles as statesmen and leaders of Athenian affairs during the most stirring period of the history of Athens. They both were also great orators, and to that fact were largely indebted for their power and influence. Thucydides has preserved the oration delivered by Pericles in commemoration of those who fell in the first year of the Peloponnesian War. It is an incomparable picture of the beauty and glory of Athens at the zenith of her power, and has been pronounced one of the finest pro- ductions of antiquity. The lan- guage of the address, as we have it, is the historian's, but the sen- timents are doubtless those of the great statesman. It was the habit of Thucydides to put speeches into the mouths of his characters. Demosthenes and -^schines. — It has been the fortune of Demos- thenes (385-322 b.c.) to have his name become throughout the world the synonym of eloquence. The labors and struggles by which, according to tradition, he achieved excellence in his art are held up anew to each genera- tion of youth as guides of the path to success. His first address before the public assembly was a complete failure, owing to defects of voice and manner. With indomitable will he set himself to the task of correcting these. He shut himself up in a cave, and gave himself to the diligent 200 GREEK LITERATURE. study of Thucydides. That he might not be tempted to spend his time in society, he rendered his appearance ridiculous by shav- ing one side of his head. To correct a stammering utterance, he spoke with pebbles in his mouth, and broke himself of an un- gainly habit of shrugging his shoulders by speaking beneath a suspended sword. To accustom himself to the tumult and inter- ruptions of a public assembly, he declaimed upon the noisiest sea- shore. These are some of the many stories told of the world's greatest orator. There is doubtless this much truth in them at least — ■ that Demosthenes attained success, in spite of great discourage- ments, by persevering and laborious effort. It is certain that he was a most dihgent student of Thucydides, whose great history he is said to have known by heart. More than sixty of his ora- tions have been preserved. " Of all human productions they present to us the models which approach the nearest to per- fection." The latter part of the life of Demosthenes is intertwined with that of another and rival Athenian orator, yEschines. For his services to the state, the Athenians proposed to award to Demos- thenes a golden crown. ^Eschines opposed this. All Athens and strangers from far and near gathered to hear the rival orators ; for every matter at Athens was decided by a great debate. Demos- thenes made the grandest effort of his life. His address, known as the -" Oration on the Crown," has been declared to be " the most polished and powerful effort of human oratory." ^schines was completely crushed, and was sent into exile, and became a teacher of oratory at Rhodes. He is said to have once gathered his disciples about him and to have read to them the oration of Demosthenes that had proved so fatal to himself. Carried away by the torrent of its eloquence, his pupils, unable to restrain their enthusiasm, burst into applause. " Ah !" said ^^^schines, who seemed to find solace in the fact that his defeat had been at the hands of so worthy an antagonist, " you should have heard the wild beast himself roaring it out ! " THE ALEXANDRIAN AGE. 201 Respecting the orations of Demosthenes against PhiHp of Mace- don, and the death of the eloquent patriot, we have already spoken (see pp. 1 60, 174). 5. The Alexandrian Age. (The Alexandrian period of Greek literature embraces the time between the break-up of Alexander's empire and the conquest of Greece by Rome (300-146 B.C.). During this period Al- exandria in Egypt was the cen- tre of literary activity, hence the term Alexanih'ian, applied to the literature of the age. The great Museum and Library of the Ptolemies afforded in that capital such facilities for stu- dents and authors as existed in no other city in the world. But the creative age of Greek literature was over. With the loss of political ^berty, litera- ture was cut off from its sources of inspiration. Consequently the Alexandrian literature lacked freshness and original- ity. The writers of the period were grammarians, commenta- tors, and translators, — in a word, book- worms. One of the most important literary undertakings of the age was the translation of the Old Testament into Greek. From the tra- ditional number of translators (seventy) the version is known as the Sephiagint (Latin for seventy.) The work was probably be- gun by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and was completed under his suc- cessors. IDEAL SCENE IN THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY. 202 GREEK LITERATURE. Among the poets of the period one name, and only one, stands out clear and pre-eminent. This is that of Theocritus, a SiciHan idyllist, who wrote at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus. His idyls are beautiful pictures of Sicilian pastoral life. Conclusion : Grseco-Roman writers. — After the Roman con- quest of Greece, the centre of Greek literary activity shifted from Alexandria to Rome. Hence Greek literature now passes into what is known as its Grseco-Roman period (146 B.C.-527 a.d.). The most noted historical writer of the first part of this period was Polybius (about 203-121 B.C.), who wrote a history of the Roman conquests from 264 to 146 B.C. His work, though the larger part of it has reached us in a very mutilated state, is of great worth ; for Polybius wrote of matters that had become his- tory in his own day. He had lived to see the larger part of the world he knew absorbed by the ever-growing power of the Imperial City. Plutarch (b. about 40 a.d.), "the prince of ancient biogra- phers," will always live in literature as the author of the Parallel Lives, in which, with great wealth of illustrative anecdotes, he com- pares or contrasts Greek and Roman statesmen and soldiers. THE SEVEN SAGES. 203 CHAPTER XX. GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. The Seven Sages; the Forerunners. — About the sixth century B.C. there hved and taught in different parts of Hellas many phi- losophers of real or reputed originality and wisdom. Among these were seven men, called the " Seven Sages," who held the place of pre-eminence.^ To them belongs the distinction of having first aroused the Greek intellect to philosophical thought. The wise sayings — such as "Know thyself" and " Nothing in excess " ■ — attributed to them, are beyond number. The ethical maxims and practical proverbs ascribed to the sages, while, hke the so-called proverbs of Solomon, they con- tain a vast amount of practical wisdom, still do not constitute philosophy proper, which is a systematic search for the reason and causes of things. They form simply the introduction or prelude to Greek philosophy. The Ionic Philosophers. — The first Greek school of philosophy grew up in the cities of Ionia, in Asia Minor, where almost all forms of Hellenic culture seem to have had their beginning. The founder of the system was Thales of Miletus (about 640-550 b.c), who was followed by Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Heraclitus. One tenet held in common by all these philosophers was that matter and mind are inseparable ; or, in other words, that all matter is animate. They never thought of the soul as something distinct and separable from matter as we do. Even the soul in 1 As in the case of the Seven Wonders of the World, ancient writers were not always agreed as to what names should be accorded the honor of enrol- ment in the sacred number. Thales, Solon, Periander, Qeobulus, Chilo, Bias, and Pittacus are, however, usually reckoned as the Seven Wise Men. 204 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. Hades was conceived as having a body in every respect like that the soul possessed in the earthly life, only it was composed of a subtler substance. This conception of matter as being alive will help us to understand Greek mythology, which, it will be remem- bered, endowed trees, rivers, springs, clouds, the planets, all phys- ical objects indeed, with intelligence and will. Pythagoras. — Pythagoras (about 580-500 b.c.) was born on the island of Samos, whence his title of " Samian Sage." Probable tradition says that he spent many years of his early life in Egypt, where he became versed in all the mysteries of the Egyptians. He returned to Greece with a great reputation, and finally settled at Crotona, in Italy. Like many another ancient philosopher, Pythagoras sought to increase the reverence of his disciples for himself by peculiarities of dress and manner. His uncut hair and beard flowed down upon his shoulders and over his breast. He never smiled. His dress was a white robe, with a golden crown. For the first years of their novitiate, his pupils were not allowed to look upon their master. They listened to his lectures from behind a curtain. Ipse dixit, " he himself said so," was the only argument they must employ in debate. It is to Pythagoras, according to legend, that we are indebted for the word philosopher. Being asked of what he was n"iaster, he replied that he was simply a " philosopher," that is, a " lover of wisdom." Pythagoras held views of the solar system that anticipated by two thousand years those of Copernicus and his school. He taught, only to his most select pupils however, that the earth is a sphere ; and that, like the other planets, it revolves about a cen- tral globe of fire. From him comes the pretty conceit of the " music of the spheres." He imagined that the heavenly spheres, by their swift, rolling motions, produced musical notes, which united in a celestial melody, too refined, however, for human ears. He taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, an idea he had doubtless brought from Egypt. Because of this belief the ANAXAGOJ^AS. 205 Pythagoreans were strict vegetarians, abstaining religiously from the use of all animal food. Anaxagoras. — Anaxagoras (499-427 b.c.) was the first Greek philosopher who made mind, instead of necessity or chance, the arranging and harmonizing force of the universe. " Reason rules the world " was his first maxim. Anaxagoras was the teacher in philosophy of Pericles, and it is certain that that statesman was greatly influenced by the liberal views of the philosopher ; for in his general conceptions of the universe, Anaxagoras was far in advance of his age. He ventured to believe that the moon was somewhat like the earth, and in- habited ; and taught that the sun was not a god, but a glowing rock, as large, probably, as the Peloponnesus. But for his audacity, the philosopher suffered the fate of Galileo in a later age ; he was charged with impiety and exiled. Yet this did not disturb the serenity of his mind. In banishment he said, " It is not I who have lost the Athenians, but the Athenians who have lost me." Empedocles and Democritus. — In the teachings of Empedocles (about 492-432 B.C.) and Democritus (about 460-370 b.c.) we meet with many speculations respecting the constitution of matter and the origin of things which are startlingly similar to some of the doctrines held by modern scientists. Empedocles, with the evolutionists of to-day, taught that the higher forms of life arise out of the lower ; Democritus conceived all things to be com- posed of invisible atoms, all alike in quality, but differing in form and combination. The Sophists. — The Sophists, of whom the most noted were Protagoras, Gorgias, and Prodicus, were a class of philosophers or teachers who gave instruction in rhetoric and the art of disputa- tion. They travelled about from city to city, and contrary to the usual custom of the Greek philosophers, took fees from their pupils. They were shallow but brilliant men, caring more for the dress in which the thought was arrayed than for the thought itself, more for victory than for truth ; and some of them inculcated a 206 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. selfish morality. The better philosophers of the time despised them, and applied to them many harsh epithets, taunting them with selling wisdom, and accusing them of boasting that they could " make the worse appear the better reason." Socrates. — Volumes would not contain what would be both instructive and interesting respecting the lives and works of the three great philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We can, however, accord to each only a few words. Of these three emi- nent thinkers, Socrates (469-399 B.C.), though surpassed in grasp and power of intellect by both Plato and Aristotle, has the firmest hold upon the affections of the world. Nature, while generous to the philos- opher in the gifts of soul, was unkind to him in the matter of his person. His face was ugly as a satyr's, and he had an awkward, shambling walk, so that he invited the shafts of the comic poets of his time. He loved to gather a little circle about him in the Agora or in the streets, and then to draw out his listen- ers by a series of ingenious questions. His method was so peculiar to himself that it has received the designation of the " Socratic dialogue." He has very happily been called an educator, as opposed to an instructor. In the young men of his time Socrates found many devoted pupils. The youthful Alcibiades declared that " he was forced to stop his ears and flee away, that he might not sit down by the side of Socrates and grow old in Hstening." Socrates was unfortunate in his domestic relations. Xanthippe, his wife, seems to have been of a practical turn of mind, and un- able to sympathize with the abstracted ways of her husband. This great philosopher believed that the proper study of man- kind is man, his favorite maxim being " Know Thyself"; hence SOCRATES. PLA TO. 207 he is said to have brought philosophy from the heavens and intro- duced it to the homes of men. Socrates held the Sophists in aversion, and in opposition to their selfish expediency taught the purest system of morals that the world had yet known, and which has been surpassed only by the precepts of the Great Teacher. He thought himself to be re- strained from entering upon what was inexpedient or wrong by a tutelary spirit. He believed in the immortality of the soul and in a Supreme Ruler of the universe, but sometimes spoke slightingly of the temples and the popular deities. This led to his prosecution on the double charge of blasphemy and of corrupting the Athenian youth. The fact that Alcibiades had been his pupil was used to prove the demoralizing tendency of his teachings. He was condemned to drink the fatal hemlock. The night before his death he spent with his disciples, discoursing on the immor- tality of the soul. Plato. — Plato (429-348 B.C.), " the broad-browed," was a phi- losopher of noble birth, before whom in youth a brilliant career in the world of Greek affairs opened ; but, coming under the influ- ence of Socrates, he resolved to give up all his prospects in politics and devote himself to philosophy. Upon the con- demnation and death of his master he went into voluntary exile. In many lands he gathered knowledge and met with varied experiences. He visited Sicily, where he was so unfortunate as to call upon himself the resentment of Diony- sius, tyrant of Syracuse, through having worsted him in an argument, and also by an uncourtly plainness of speech. The king caused him to be sold into slavery as a prisoner of war. Being ransomed by a friend, he found his way to his native Athens, and established a school of philosophy in the Academy, a public garden close to Athens. Here amid the dis- PLATO. 208 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. ciples that thronged to his lectures, he passed the greater part of his long life, — he died 348 B.C., at the age of eighty-one years, — laboring incessantly upon the great works that bear his name. Plato imitated in his writings the method of Socrates in conversa- tion. The discourse is carried on by questions and answers, hence the term Dialogues that attaches to his works. He attributes to his master, Socrates, much of the philosophy that he teaches : yet his Dialogues are all deeply tinged with his own genius and thought. In the Republic Plato portrays his conception of an ideal state. • He was opposed to the republic of Athens, and his system, in some of its main features, was singularly like the Feudal System of mediaeval Europe. The PhcBcio is a record of the last conversation of Socrates with his disciples — an immortal argument for the immortality of the soul. Plato believed not only in a future life (post-existence), but also in pre-existence ; teaching that the ideas of reason, or our intu- itions, are reminiscences of a past experience.^ Plato's doctrines have exerted a profound influence upon all schools of thought and philosophies since his day. In some of his precepts he made a close approach to the teachings of Christianity. " We ought to become like God," he said, " as far as this is possible ; and to become like Him is to become holy and just and wise." Aristotle. — As Socrates was surpassed by his pupil Plato, so in turn was Plato excelled in certain respects by his disciple Aristotle, " the master of those who know." In him the philosophical genius of the Hellenic intellect reached its culmination. He was born in the 1 In the following lines from Wordsworth we catch a glimpse of Plato's doctrine of pre-existence : — " Our birtli is but a sleep and a forgetting; The soui that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And Cometh from afar: Not in entire fprgetfulness, Nor yet in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory, do we come From God, who is our home." — Ode on [minortaltty. ARISTOTLE. 209 Macedonian city of Stagira (384 B.C.), and hence is frequently called the " Stagirite." As in the case of Socrates, his personal appearance gave no promise of the philosopher. His teacher, Plato, however, recognized the gen- ius of his pupil, and called him the " Mind of the school." After studying for twenty years in the school of Plato, Aristotle became the preceptor of Alexander the Great. When Phihp invited him to become the tutor of his son, he gracefully complimented the philos- opher by saying in his letter that he was grateful to the gods that the prince was born in the same age with him. Alexander became the liberal patron of his tutor, and aided him in his scientific studies by send- ing him large collections of plants and animals, gathered on his distant expeditions. At Athens the great philosopher delivered his lectures while walking about beneath the trees and por- ticoes of the Lyceum ; hence the term peripatetic (from the Greek peripatein, " to walk about ") applied to his philosophy. Among the productions of his fertile intellect are works on rhetoric, logic, poetry, morals and politics, physics and meta- physics. For centuries his works were studied and copied and commented upon by both European and Asiatic scholars, in the schools of Athens and Rome, of Alexandria and Constantinople. Until the time of Bacon in England, for nearly two thousand years, Aristotle ruled over the realm of mind with a despotic sway. All ARISTOTLE. 210 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. teachers and philosophers acknowledged him as their guide and master. Zeno and the Stoics. — We are now approaching the period when the political life of Hellas was failing, and was being fast overshadowed by the greatness of Rome. But the intellectual life of the Greek race was by no means eclipsed by the calamity that ended its political existence. For centuries after that event the poets, scholars, and philosophers of this intellectual people led a brilliant career in the schools and universities of the Roman world. From among all the philosophers of this long period, we can select for brief mention only a few. And first we shall speak of Zeno and Epicurus, who are noted as founders of schools of phi- losophy that exerted a vast influence upon both the thought and the conduct of many centuries. Zeno, founder of the celebrated school of the Stoics, lived in the third century before our era (about 362-264). He taught at Athens in a public porch (in Greek, sfoa), from which circumstance comes the name applied to his disciples. The Stoical philosophy was the outgrowth, in part at least, of that of the Cynics, a sect of most rigid and austere morals. The typical representative of this sect is found in Diogenes, who lived, so the story goes, in a tub, and went about Athens by dayhght with a lantern, in search, as he said, of a man. The Cynics were simply a race of pagan hermits. The Stoics inculcated virtue for the sake of itself. They be- lieved — and it would be very difficult to frame a better creed — that " man's chief business here is to do his duty." They schooled themselves to bear with perfect composure any lot that destiny might appoint. Any sign of emotion on account of calamity was considered unmanly and unphilosophical. Thus, when told of the sudden death of his son, the Stoic replied, " Well, I never imagined that I had given life to an immortal." Stoicism became a favorite system of thought with certain classes of the Romans, and under its teachings and doctrines were nour- EPICURUS AND THE EPICUREANS. 211 ished some of the purest and loftiest characters produced by the pagan world. It numbered among its representatives, in later times, the illustrious Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, and the scarcely less renowned and equally virtuous slave Epictetus. In many of its teachings it anticipated Christian doctrines, and was, in the philosophical world, a very important preparation for Chris- tianity. Epicurus and the Epicureans. — Epicurus (342-270 b.c), who was a contemporary of Zeno, taught, in opposition to the Stoics, that pleasure is the highest good. He recommended virtue, indeed, but only as a means for the attainment of pleasure ; whereas the Stoics made virtue an end in itself. In other words, Epicurus said, " Be virtuous, because virtue will bring you the greatest amount of happiness " ; Zeno said, " Be virtuous, because you ought to be." Epicurus had many followers in Greece, and his doctrines "were eagerly embraced by many among the Romans during the corrupt period of the Roman empire. Many of these disciples carried the doc- trines of their master to an excess that he himself would have been the first to condemn. Allowing full indulgence to every appetite and passion, their whole philosophy was expressed in the proverb, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." No pure or exalted life could be nourished in the unwholesome atmosphere of such a philosophy. Epicureanism never produced a single great character. The Skeptics ; Pyrrho. — About the beginning of the third cen- tury B.C. skepticism became widespread in Greece. It seemed as though men were losing faith in everything. Many circumstances had worked together in bringing about this state of universal unbelief. A wider knowledge of the world had caused many to lose their faith in the myths and legends of the old mythologies. EPICURUS. 212 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. The existence of so many opposing systems of philosophy caused men to doubt the truth of any of them. Many thoughtful minds were hopelessly asking, "What is truth?" Pyrrho (about 360-270 B.C.) was the doubting Thomas of the Greeks. He questioned everything, and declared that the great problems of the universe could not be solved. He asserted that it was the duty of man, and the part of wisdom, to entertain no positive judgment on any matter, and thus to ensure serenity and peace of mind. The disciples of Pyrrho went to absurd lengths in their skepti- cism, some of them even saying that they asserted nothing, not even that they asserted nothing. They doubted whether they doubted. The Neo-Platonists. — Neo-Platonism was a blending of Greek philosophy and Oriental mysticism. It has been well called the "despair of reason," because it abandoned all hope of man's ever being able to attain the highest knowledge through reason alone, and looked for a Revelation. The centre of this last movement in Greek philosophical thought was Alexandria in Egypt, the meet- ing-place, in the closing centuries of the ancient world, of the East and the West. Philo the Jew (b. about 30 B.C.), who labored to harmonize Hebrew doctrines with the teachings of Plato, was the forerunner of the Neo-Platonists. But the greatest of the school was Ploti- nus (a.d. 204-269), who spent the last years of his life at Rome, where he was a great favorite. Conflict between Neo-Platonism and Christianity. — While the Neo-Platonists were laboring to restore, in modified form, the ancient Greek philosophy and worship, the teachers of Christi- anity were fast winning the world over to a new faith. The two systems came into deadly antagonism. Christianity triumphed. The gifted and beautiful Hypatia, almost the last representative of the old system of speculation and belief, was torn to pieces in the streets of Alexandria by a mob of fanatic Christian monks (a.d. 415). Finally the Roman emperor Justinian forbade the pagan SCIENCE AMONG THE GREEKS. 213 philosophers to teach their doctrines (a.d. 529). This imperial edict closed forever the Greek schools, in which for more than a thousand years the world had received instruction upon the loftiest themes that can engage the human mind. The Greek philoso- phers, as living, personal teachers, had finished their work; but their systems of thought will never cease to attract and influence the best minds of the race. Science among the Greeks. The contributions of the Greek observers to the physical sciences have laid us under no small obligation to them. Some of those whom we have classed as philosophers, were careful students of nature, and might be called scientists. The great philosopher Aristotle wrote some valuable works on anatomy and natural his- tory. From his time onward the sciences were pursued with much zeal and success. Especially did the later Greeks do much good and lasting work in the mathematical sciences. Mathematics : Euclid and Archimedes. — Alexandria, in Egypt, became the seat of the most celebrated school of mathematics of antiquity. Here, under Ptolemy Lagus, flourished Euclid, the great geometer, whose work forms the basis of the science of geometry as taught in our schools at the present time. Ptolemy himself was his pupil. The royal student, however, seems to have disliked the severe application required to master the problems of Euclid, and asked his teacher if there was not some easier way. Euclid replied, "There is no royal road to geometry." In the third century B.C., Syracuse, in Sicily, was the home of Archimedes, the greatest mathematician that the Grecian world produced. Astronomy. — Among ancient Greek astronomers, Aristarchus, Hipparchus, and Claudius Ptolemy are distinguished. Aristarchus of Samos, who lived in the third century B.C., held that the earth revolves about the sun as a fixed centre, and rotates on its own axis. He was the Greek Copernicus. But his theory was rejected by his contemporaries and successors. 214 GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. Hipparchus, who flourished about the middle of the second century B.C., was, through his careful observations, the real founder of scientific astronomy. He calculated eclipses, catalogued the stars, and wrote several astronomical works of a really scientific character. Claudius Ptolemy Hved in Egypt about the middle of the second century after Christ. His great reputation is due not so much to his superior genius as to the fortunate circumstance that a vast work compiled by him, preserved and transmitted to later times almost all the knowledge of the ancients on astronomical and geographical subjects. In this way it has happened that his name has become attached to various doctrines and views respecting the universe, though these probably were not originated by him. The phrase Ptolemaic system, however, links his name inseparably with that conception of the solar system set forth in his works, which continued to be the received theory from his time until Copernicus — fourteen centuries later. Ptolemy combated the theory of Aristarchus in regard to the rotation and revolution of the earth ; yet he believed the earth to be a globe, and supported this view by exactly the same argu- ments that we to-day use to prove the doctrine. EDUCATION. 215 CHAPTER XXL SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. Education. — Education at Sparta, where it was chiefly gymnas- tic, as we have seen (p. 115), was a state affair; but at Athens and throughout Greece generally, the youth were trained in private schools. These schools were of all grades, ranging from those kept by the most obscure teachers, who gathered their pupils in some recess of the street, to those established in the Athenian Academy and Lyceum by such philosophers as Plato and Aristotle. A GREEK SCHOOL. (After a vase-painting.) It was only the boys who received education. These Grecian boys. Professor Mahaffy imagines, were " the most attractive the world has ever seen." At all events, we may believe that they were trained more carefully and delicately than the youth among any other people before or since the days of Hellenic culture. 216 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. In the nursery, the boy was taught the beautiful myths and stories of the national mythology. At about seven he entered school, being led to and from the place of training by an old slave, who bore the name of pedagogue, which in Greek means a guide or leader of boys — not a teacher. His studies were grammar, music, and gymnastics, the aim of the course being to secure a symmetrical development of mind and body alike. Grammar included reading, writing, and arithmetic ; music, which embraced a wide range of mental accomplishments, trained the boy to appreciate the masterpieces of the great poets, to con- tribute his part to the musical diversions of private entertainments, and to join in the sacred choruses and in the paean of the battle- field. The exercises of the palestrae and the gymnasia trained him for the Olympic contests, or for those sterner hand-to-hand battle- struggles, in which so much depended upon personal strength and dexterity. Upon reaching maturity, the youth was enrolled in the list of citi- zens. But his graduation from school was his " commencement " in a much more real sense than with the average modern graduate. Never was there a people besides the Greeks whose daily life was so emphatically a discipline in liberal culture. The schools of the philosophers, the debates of the popular assembly, the practice of the law-courts, the religious processions, the representations of an unrivalled stage, the Panhellenic games — all these were splendid and efficient educational agencies, which produced and maintained a standard of average intelligence and culture among the citizens of the Greek cities that probably has never been attained among any other people on the earth. Freeman, quoted approvingly by Mahafify, says that " the average intelligence of the assembled Athenian citizens was higher than that of our [the English] House of Commons." Social Position of Woman. — Woman's social position in ancient Greece may be defined in general as being about half-way between Oriental seclusion and Western freedom. Her main duties were to cook and spin, and to oversee the domestic slaves, of whom she THE A TRICAL ENTER TAINMENTS. lYl herself was practically one. In the fashionable society of Ionian cities, she was seldom allowed to appear in public, or to meet, even in her own house, the male friends of her husband. In Sparta, however, and in Dorian states generally, she was accorded much greater freedom, and was a really important factor in society. The low position generally assigned the wife in the home had a most disastrous effect upon Greek morals. She could exert no such elevating or refining influence as she casts over the modern home. The men were led to seek social and intellectual sym- pathy and companionship outside the family circle, among a class of women known as Hetairse, who were esteemed chiefly for their brilliancy of intellect. As the most noted representative of this class stands Aspasia, the friend of Pericles. The influence of the Hetairae was most harm- ful to social morality. Theatrical Entertainments. — Among the ancient Greeks the theatre was a state estab- lishment, "a part of the constitution." This arose from the religious origin and character of the drama (see p. 193), all matters per- taining to the popular worship being the care and concern of the state. Theatrical performances, being religious acts, were pre- sented only during religious festivals, and were attended by all classes, rich and poor, men, women, and children. The women, however, except the Hetairae, were, it would seem, permitted to witness tragedies only; the comic stage was too gross to allow of their presence. The spectators sat under the open sky ; and the pieces followed one after the other in close succession from early morning till nightfall. There were companies of players who strolled about the coun- try, just as the English actors of Shakespeare's time were wont to GREEK TRAGIC FIGURE. 218 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. do. While the better class of actors were highly honored, ordi- nary players were held in very low esteem. The tragic actor increased his height and size by wearing thick-soled buskins, an enormous mask, and padded garments. The actor in comedy wore thin-soled slippers, or socks. The sock being thus a charac- teristic part of the make-up of the ancient comic actor, and the buskin that of the tragic actor, these foot coverings have come to be used as the symbols respectively of comedy and tragedy, as in the familiar lines of Dryden : — " Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here, Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear." The theatre exerted a great influence upon Greek life. It per- formed for ancient Greek society somewhat the same service as that rendered to modern society by the pulpit and the press. During the best days of Hellas the frequent rehearsal upon the stage of the chief incidents in the lives of the gods and the heroes served to deepen and strengthen the religious faith of the people ; and later, in the Macedonian period, the theatre was one of the chief agents in the diffusion of Greek literary culture over the world. Banquets and Symposia. — Banquets and drinking-parties among the "Greeks possessed some features which set them apart from similar entertainments among other peoples. The banquet proper was partaken, in later times, by the guest in a reclining position, upon couches or divans, arranged about the table in the Oriental manner. After the usual courses, a liba- tion was poured out and a hymn sung in honor of the gods, and then followed that characteristic part of the entertainment known as the symposium. The symposium was "the intellectual side of the feast." It consisted of general conversation, riddles, and convivial songs ren- dered to the accompaniment of the lyre passed from hand to hand. Generally, professional singers and musicians, dancing-girls, jugglers, and jesters were called in to contribute to the merry- making. All the while the wine-bowl circulated freely, the rule OCCUPATION. 219 being that a man might drink " as much as he could carry home without a guide, — unless he were far gone in years." Here also the Greeks applied their maxim, " Never too much." The banqueters usually consumed the night in merry-making, sometimes being broken in upon from the street by other bands of revellers, who made themselves self-invited guests. Occupation. — The enormous body of slaves in ancient Greece relieved the free population from most of those forms of labor classed as drudgery. The aesthetic Greek regarded as degrading any kind of manual labor that marred the symmetry or beauty of the body. At Sparta, and in other states where oligarchical institutions prevailed, the citizens formed a sort of military class, strikingly similar to the military aristocracy of Feudal Europe. Their chief occupation was martial and gymnastic exercises and the adminis- tration of public affairs. The Spartans, it will be recalled, were forbidden by law to engage in trade. In other aristocratic states, as at Thebes, a man by engaging in trade disqualified himself for full citizenship. In the democratic states, however, speaking generally, labor and trade were regarded with less contempt. A considerable por- tion of the citizens were traders, artisans, and farmers. Life at Athens presented some peculiar features. All Attica being included in what we should term the corporate limits of the city, the roll of Athenian citizens included a large body of well-to- do farmers, whose residence was outside the city walls. The Attic plains, and the slopes of the half-encirchng hills, were dotted with beautiful villas and inviting farmhouses. And then Athens being the head of a great empire of subject cities, a large number of Athenian citizens were necessarily em- ployed as salaried officials in the minor positions of the public service, and thus politics became a profession. In any event, the meetings of the popular assembly and the discussion of mat- ters of state engrossed more or less of the time and attention of every citizen. 220 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. Again, the great Athenian jury-courts, which were busied with cases from all parts of the empire, gave constant employment to nearly one fourth of the citizens, the fee that the juryman received enabling him to live without other business. It is said that, in the early morning, when the jurymen were passing through the streets to the different courts, Athens appeared like a city wholly given up to the single business of law. Furthermore, the great public works, such as temples and commemorative monuments, which were in constant process of erection, afforded employment for a vast number of artists and skilled workmen of every class. In the Agora, again, at any time of the day, a numerous class might have been found whose sole occupation, as in the case of Socrates, was to talk. The writer of the '' Acts of the Apostles " was so impressed with this feature of life at Athens that he sum- marized the habits of the people by saying, "All the Athenians, and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing." (Chap. xvii. 21.) Slavery. — There was a dark side to Greek life. Hellenic art, culture, refinement — '' these good things were planted, like ex- quisite exotic flowers, upon the black, rank soil of slavery." The proportion of slaves to the free population in many of the states was astonishingly large. In Corinth and y^gina there were ten slaves to every freeman. In Attica the proportion was four to one ; that is to say, out of a population of about 500,000, 400,000 were slaves.^ Almost every freeman was a slave owner. It was accounted a real hardship to have to get along with less than half a dozen slaves. This large class of slaves was formed in various ways. In the prehistoric period, the fortunes of war had brought the entire population of whole provinces into a servile condition, as in cer- tain parts of the Peloponnesus. During later times, the ordinary captives of war still further augmented the ranks of these unfor- tunates. Their number was also largely added to by the slave 1 The population of Attica in 317 B.C. is reckoned at about 527,000. That of Athens in its best daj^s was probably not far from 1 50,000. SLA VER Y. 221 traffic carried on with the barbarian peoples of Asia Minor. Crimi- nals and debtors, too, were often condemned to servitude ; while foundlings were usually brought up as slaves. The relation of master and slave was regarded by the Greek as being, not only a legal, but a natural one. A free community, in his view, could not exist without slavery. It formed the nat- ural basis of both the family and the state, — the relation of master and slave being regarded as " strictly analogous to the relation of soul and body." Even Aristotle and other Greek philosophers approved the maxim that "slaves are simply domestic animals possessed of intelhgence." They were regarded as just as neces- sary in the economy of the family as cooking utensils. In general, Greek slaves were not treated harshly — judging their treatment by the standard of humanity that prevailed in antiquity. Some held places of honor in the family, and enjoyed the confidence and even the friendship of their master. Yet at Sparta, where slavery assumed the form of serfdom, the lot of the slave was pecuharly hard and unendurable. If slavery was ever justified by its fruits, it was in Greece. The briUiant civilization of the Greeks was its product, and could never have existed without it. As one truthfully says, " Without the slaves the Attic democracy would have been an impossibility, for they alone enabled the poor, as well as the rich, to take a part in public affairs." Relieving the citizen of all drudgery, the sys- tem created a class characterized by elegant leisure, refinement, and culture. We find an almost exact historical parallel to all this in the feudal aristocracy of Mediaeval Europe. Such a society has been well likened to a great pyramid, whose top may be gilded with light, while the base lies in dark shadows. The civilization of ancient Hellas was splendid and attractive, but it rested with a crushing weight upon all the lower orders of Greek society. SECTION III.— ROMAN HISTORY. CHAPTER XXII. THE ROMAN KINGDOM. (Legendary Date, 753-509 B.C.) Divisions of Italy. — The peninsula of Italy, like that of Greece, divides itself into three parts — Northern, Central, and Southern Italy. The first comprises the great basin of the Po, lying between the Alps and the Apennines. In ancient times this part of Italy included three districts — Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, which means " Gaul on this (the Italian) side of the Alps," and Venetia. The countries of Central Italy were Etruria, Latium, and Cam- pania, facing the Western, or Tuscan Sea ; Umbria and Picenum, looking out over the Eastern, or Adriatic Sea ; and Samnium and the country of the Sabines, occupying the rough mountain dis- tricts of the Apennines. ^ Southern Italy comprised the countries of Apulia, Lucania, Calabria, and Bruttium. Calabria occupied the " heel," and Bruttium formed the " toe," of the peninsula. This part of Italy, as we have already learned, was called Magna Grsecia, or " Great Greece," on account of the number and importance of the Greek cities that during the period of Hellenic supremacy were estab- lished in these regions. The large island of Sicily, lying just off the mainland on the south, may be regarded simply as a detached fragment of Italy, so intimately has its history been interwoven with that of the peninsula. In ancient times it was the meeting-place and battle- ground of the Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans. q EARL V INHABITANTS OF ITAL V. 223 Early Inhabitants of Italy. — There were, in early times, tliree chief races in Italy — the Italians, the Etruscans, and the Greeks. The Italians, a branch of the Aryan family, embraced many tribes (Latins, Umbrians, Sabines, Saiimites, etc.), that occupied nearly all Central Italy. The Etruscans, a wealthy, cultured, and mari- time people of uncertain race, dwelt in Etruria, now Tuscany. Before the rise of the Romans they were the leading race in the peninsula. Of the establishment of the Greek cities in Southern Italy, we have already learned in connection with Grecian History (p. in). Some five hundred years B.C., the Gauls, a Celtic race, came over the Alps, and settling in Northern Italy, became formidable enemies of the infant republic of Rome. The Latins. — Most important of all the Italian peoples were the Latins, who dwelt in Latium, between the Tiber and the Liris. These people, like all the Italians, were near kindred of the Greeks, and brought with them into Italy those same customs, manners, beliefs, and institutions which we have seen to have been the common possession of the various branches of the Aryan household (see p. 5). There are said to have been in all Latium thirty towns, and these formed an alliance known as the Latin League. The city which first assumed importance and leader- ship among the towns of this confederation was Alba Tonga, the " Long White City," so called because its buildings stretched for a great distance along the summit of a whitish ridge. The Beginnings of Rome. — The place of preeminence among the Latin towns was soon lost by Alba Longa, and gained by another city. This was Rome, the stronghold of the Ramnes, or Romans, located upon a low hill on the south bank of the Tiber, about fifteen miles from the sea. The traditions of the Romans place the founding of their city in the year 753 b.c. The town was established, it would seem, as an outpost to guard the northern frontier of Latium against the Etruscans. Recent excavations have revealed the foundations of the old 224 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. walls and two of the ancient gates. We thus learn that the city at first covered only the top of the Palatine Hill, one of a cluster of low eminences close to the Tiber, which, finally embraced within the limits of the growing city, became the famed " Seven Hills of Rome." From the shape of its enclosing walls, the origi- nal city was called Roma Quadrata, " Square Rome." The Early Roman State : King, Senate, and Popular Assem- bly. — The early Roman state seems to have been formed by the union of three communities. These constituted three tribes, known as Ramnes (the Romans proper, who gave name to the mixed people), Titles, and Luceres. Each of these tribes was divided into ten wards, or districts {curice) ; each ward was made up of gentes, or clans, and each clan was composed of a number of famihes. The heads of these famihes were called patres, or '' fathers," and all the members patricians, that is, " chil- dren of the fathers." At the head of the nation stood the King, who was the father of the state. He was at once ruler of the people, commander of the army, judge and high priest of the nation, with absolute power as to life and death. Next to the king stood the Senate, or " council of the old men," composed of the " fathers," or heads of the families. This- council had no power to enact laws : the duty of its members was simply to advise with the king, who was free to follow or to disregard their suggestions. The Popular Assembly {comiiia curiata) comprised all the citi- zens of Rome, that is, all the members of the patrician families, old enough to bear arms. It was this body that enacted the laws of the state, determined upon peace or war, and also elected the king. Classes of Society. — The two important classes of the popu- lation of Rome under the kingdpm and the early repubHc, were the patricians and the plebeians. The former were the mem- bers of the three original tribes that made up the Roman people, and at first alone possessed political rights. They were proud. THE LEGENDARY KINGS. llh exclusive, and tenacious of their inherited privileges. The latter were made up chiefly of the inhabitants of subjected cities, and of refugees from various quarters that had sought an asylum at Rome. They were free to acquire property, and enjoyed personal freedom, but at first had no political rights whatever. The greater number were petty land-owners, who held and cultivated the soil about the city. A large part of the early history of Rome is sim- ply the narration of the struggles of this class to secure social and political equality with the patricians. Besides these two principal orders, there were two other classes — clients and slaves. The former were attached to the families of patricians, who became their patrons, or protectors. The con- dition of the client was somewhat like that of the serf in the feudal system of the Middle Ages. A large clientage was con- sidered the crown and glory of a patrician house. The slaves were, in the main, captives in war. Their number, small at first, gradually increased as the Romans extended their conquests, till they outnumbered all the other classes taken to- gether, and more than once turned upon their masters in formida- ble revolts that threatened the very existence of the Roman state. The Legendary Kings. — For nearly two and a half centuries after the founding of Rome (from 753 to 509 B.C., according to tradition), the government was a monarchy. To span this period, the legends of the Romans tell of the reigns of seven kings — Romulus, the founder of Rome ; Numa, the lawgiver ; Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Martins, conquerors both ; Tarquinius Priscus, the great builder ; Servius Tullius, the reorganizer of the govern- ment and second founder of the state ; and Tarquinius Superbus, the haughty tyrant, whose oppressions led to the abolition by the people of the office of king. The traditions of the doings of these monarchs and of what happened to them, blend hopelessly fact and fable. We caimot be quite sure even as to the names. Respecting Roman affairs, however, under the last three rulers (the Tarquins), who were of Etruscan origin, some important things are related, the substantial 226 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. truth of which we may rely upon with a fair degree of cer- tainty; and these matters we shall notice in the following para- graphs. Growth of Rome under the Tarquins. — The Tarquins extended their authority over the whole of Latium. The position of suprem- acy thus given Rome was naturally attended by the rapid growth in population and importance of the little Palatine city. The orig- inal walls soon became too strait for the increasing multitudes ; new ramparts were built — tradition says under the direction of VIEW OF THE CAPITOLINE, WITH THE CLOACA MAXIMA; (A Reconstruction.) the king Servius Tullius — which, with a great circuit of seven miles, swept around the entire cluster of the Seven Hills. A large tract of marshy ground between the Palatine and Capitoline hills was drained by means of the Cloaca Maxima, the " Great Sewer," which was so admirably constructed that it has been preserved to the present day. It still discharges its waters through a great arch into the Tiber. The land thus reclaimed became the Forum, the assembling-place of the people. Upon the summit of the Capito- THE NEW CONSTITUTION. Ill line Hill, overlooking the Forum, was built the famous sanctuary called the Capitol, or the Capitoline temple, where beneath the same roof were the shrines of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, the three great national deities. Upon the level ground between the Aventine and the Palatine was laid out the Circus Maximus, the " Great Circus," where were celebrated the Roman games. New Constitution of Servins Tullius. — The second king of the Etruscan house, Servius Tullius by name, effected a most impor- tant change in the constitution of the Roman state. He did here at Rome just what Solon at about this time did at Athens (see p. 120) . He made property instead of birth the basis of the constitution. The entire population w^as divided into five classes, the first of which included all citizens, whether patricians or plebeians, who owned \.yNQx\X^ jugera (about twelve acres) of land; the fifth and lowest embraced all that could show title to even two jugera. The army was made up of the members of the five classes ; as it was thought right and proper that the public defence should be the care of those who, on account of their possessions, were most in- terested in the maintenance of order and in the protection of the boundaries of the state. The assembling-place of the military classes thus organized was on a large plain just outside the city walls, called the Campus Martins, or "Field of Mars." The meeting of these mihtary orders was called the comitia centuriata, or the " assembly of hundreds."' This body, which of course was made up of patri- cians and plebeians, gradually absorbed the powers of the earlier patrician assembly (^comitia ciiriata). The Expulsion of the Kings. — The legends make Tarquinius Superbus, or Tarquin the Proud, the last king of Rome. He is represented as a monstrous tyrant, whose arbitrary acts caused both patricians and plebeians to unite and drive him and all his house into exile. This event, according to tradition, occurred in 1 This assembly was not organized by Servius Tullius, but it grew out of the military organization he created. 228 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. the year 509 B.C., only one year later than the expulsion of the tyrants from Athens (see p. 122). So bitterly did the people hate the tyranny they had abolished that it is said they all, the nobles as well as the commons, bound themselves by most solemn oaths never again to tolerate a king. We shall hereafter see how well this vow was kept for nearly five hundred years. The Roman Religion. The Chief Roman Deities. — The basis of the Roman religious system was the same as that of the Grecian : the germs of its in- stitutions were brought from the same home in Central Asia. At the head of the Pantheon stood Jupiter, identical in all essential attributes with the Hellenic Zeus. He was the special protector of the Roman people. To him, together with Juno and Minerva, was consecrated, as we have already noticed, a magnificent temple upon the summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Forum and the city. Mars, the god of war, standing next in rank, was the favorite deity and the fabled father of the Roman race, who were fond of calling themselves the " children of Mars." They proved themselves worthy offspring of the war-god. Martial games and festivals were celebrated in his honor during the first month of the Roman year, which bore, and still bears, in his honor, the name of March. Janus was a double-faced deity, " the god of the beginning and the end of everything." The month of January was sacred to him, as were also all gates and doors. The gates of his temple were always kept open in time of war and shut in time of peace. The fire upon the household hearth was regarded as the symbol of the goddess Vesta. Her worship was a favorite one with the Romans. The nation, too, as a single great family, had a common national hearth in the Temple of Vesta, where the sacred fires were kept burning from generation to generation by six virgins, daughters of the Roman state. The Lares and Penates were household gods. Their images were set in the entrance of the ORACLES AND DIVINATION. ll"^ dwelling. The Lares were the spirits of ancestors, which were thought to linger about the home as its guardians. Oracles and Divination. — The Romans, like the Greeks, thought that the will of the gods was communicated to men by means of oracles, and by strange sights, unusual events, or singular co- incidences. There were no true oracles at Rome. The Romans, therefore, often had recourse to those in Magna Graecia, even sending for advice, in great emergencies, to the Delphian shrine. From Etruria was intro- duced the art of the haruspices, or sooth- sayers, which consisted in discovering the divine mind by the ap- pearance of victims slain for the sacrifices. The Sacred Colleges. — The four chief sa- cred colleges, or socie- ties, were the Keepers of the Sibylline Books, the College of Augurs, the College of Pontiffs, and the College of the Heralds. A curious legend is told of the Sibylline Books. An old woman came to Tarquinius Superbus and offered to sell him, for an extravagant price, nine volumes. As the king declined to pay the sum demanded, the woman departed, destroyed three of the books, and then, returning, offered the remainder at the very same sum that she -had wanted for the complete number. The king still refused to purchase ; so the sibyl went away and de- VESTAL VIRGIN. 230 THE ROMAN KINGDOM, stroyed three more of the volumes, and bringing back the remain- ing three, asked the same price as before. Tarquin was by this time so curious respecting the contents of the mysterious books that he purchased the remaining vokmies. It was found upon examination that they were filled with prophecies respecting the future of the Roman people. The books were placed in a stone chest, which was kept in a vault beneath the Capitoline temple ; and special custodians were appointed to take charge of them and interpret them. The number of keepers, throughout the most important period of Roman history, was fifteen. The books were consulted only in times of extreme danger. The duty of the members of the College of Augurs was to interpret the omens, or auspices, which were casual sights or appearances, by which means it was believed that Jupiter made known his will. Great skill was required in the " taking of the auspices," as it was called. No business of importance, public or private, was entered upon without first consulting the auspices, to ascertain whether they were favorable. The public assembly, for illustration, must not convene, to elect officers or to enact laws, unless the auspices had been taken and found propitious. Should a peal of thunder occur while the people were holding a meeting, that was considered an unfavorable omen, and the assembly must instantly disperse. The College of Pontiffs was so called because one of the duties of its members was to keep in repair the bridges {pontes) over which the religious processions were accustomed to pass. This was the most important of all the religious institutions of the Romans ; for to the pontiffs belonged the superintendence of all religious matters. In their keeping, too, was the calendar, and they could lengthen or shorten the year, which power they some- times used to extend the office of a favorite or to cut short that of one who had incurred their displeasure. The head of the college was called Pontifex Maximus, or the Chief Bridge-builder, which title was assumed by the Roman emperors, and after them by the Christian bishops of Rome ; and thus the name has come down to our own times. SACRED GAMES. 231 The College of Heralds had the care of all public matters per- taining to foreign nations. If the Roman people had suffered any wrong from another state, it was the duty of the heralds to demand satisfaction. If this was denied, and war determined upon, then a herald proceeded to the frontier of the enemy's country and hurled over the boundary a spear dipped in blood. This was a declaration of war. The Romans were very careful in the observ- ance of this ceremony. Sacred (Grames. — The Romans had many religious games and festivals. Prominent among these were the so-called Circensian Games, or Games of the Circus, which were very similar to the sacred games of the Greeks (see p. io6). They consisted, in the main, of chariot-racing, wrestling, foot-racing, and various other athletic contests. These festivals, as in the case of those of the Greeks, had their origin in the belief that the gods delighted in the exhibition of feats of skill, strength, or endurance ; that their anger might be appeased by such spectacles ; or that they might be persuaded by the promise of games to lend aid to mortals in great emergen- cies. At the opening of the year it was customary for the Roman magistrate, in behalf of the people, to promise to the gods games and festivals, provided good crops, protection from pestilence, and victory were granted the Romans during the year. So, too, a general in great straits in the field might, in the name of the state, vow plays to the gods, and the people were sacredly bound by his act to fulfil the promise. Plays given in fulfilment of vows thus made were called votive games. Towards the close of the repubhc these games lost much of their religious character, and at last became degraded into mere brutal shows given by ambitious leaders for the purpose of v/inning popularity. 232 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. CHAPTER XXIII. THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC : CONQUEST OF ITALY. (509-264 B.C.) The First Consuls. — With the monarchy overthrown and the last king and his house banished from Rome, the people set to work to reorganize the government. In place of the king, there were elected (by the comitia centuriata, in which assembly the plebeians had a place) two patrician magistrates, called consuls,^ who were chosen for one year, and were invested with all the powers, save some priestly functions, that had been held by the monarch during the regal period. In public each consul was attended by twelve servants, called lictors, each of whom bore an axe bound in a bundle of rods {fasces), the symbols of the authority of the consul to flog and to put to death. Within the limits of the city, however, the axe must be removed from tht fasces, by which was indicated that no Roman citizen could be put to death by the consuls without the consent of the public assembly. Lucius Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus were the first consuls under the new constitution. But it is said that the very name of Tarquinius was so intolerable to the people that he was forced to resign the consulship, and that he and all his house were driven out of Rome." Another consul, Pubhus Valerius, was chosen in his stead. 1 That is, colleagues. Each consul had the power of obstructing the acts or vetoing the commands of the other. In times of great public danger the con- suls were superseded by a special officer called a dictator, whose term of office was limited to six months, but whose power during this time was as unlimited as that of the kings had been. ■^ The truth is, he was related to the exiled royal family, and the people were distrustful of his loyalty to the republic. SECESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS. 233 First Secession of the Plebeians (494 b.c.) . — Taking advantage of the disorders that followed the political revolution, the Latin towns which had been forced to acknowledge the supremacy of LICTORS. Rome rose in revolt, and the result was that almost all the con- quests that had been made under the kings were lost. For a long time the little republic had to struggle hard for bare existence. Troubles without brought troubles within. The poor plebeians, during this period of disorder and war, fell in debt to the wealthy 234 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. class, — for the Roman soldier went to war at his own charge, equipping and feeding himself, — and payment was exacted with heartless severity. A debtor became the absolute property of his creditor, who might sell him as a slave to pay the debt, and in some cases even put him to death. All this was intolerable. The plebeians determined to secede from Rome and build a new city for themselves on a neighboring eminence, called afterwards the Sacred Hill. They marched away in a body from Rome to the chosen spot, and began making preparations for erecting new homes (494 B.C.). The Covenant and the Tribunes. — The patricians saw clearly that such a division must prove ruinous to the state, and that the plebeians must be persuaded to give up their enterprise and come back to Rome. The consul Valerius was sent to treat with the insurgents. The plebeians were at first obstinate, but at last were persuaded to yield to the entreaties of the embassy to return, being won to this mind, so it is said, by one of the wise senators, Menenius, who made use of the well-known fable of the Body and the Members. The following covenant was entered into, and bound by the most solemn oaths and vows before the gods : The debts of the poor plebeians were to be cancelled and those held in slavery set free ; and two magistrates (the number was soon increased to ten), called tribunes, whose duty it should be to watch over the plebeians, and protect them against the injustice, harshness, and partiality of the patrician magistrates, were to be chosen from the commons. The persons of these officers were made sacred. Any one interrupting a tribune in the discharge of his duties, or doing him any violence, was declared an outlaw, whom any one might kill. That the tribunes might be always easily found, they were not allowed to go more than one mile beyond the city walls. Their houses were to be open night as well as day, that any plebeian unjustly dealt with might flee thither for protection and refuge. We cannot overestimate the importance of the change effected CORIOLANUS. 235 in the Roman constitution by the creation of this office of the trib- unate. Under the protection and leadership of the tribunes, who were themselves protected by oaths of inviolable sanctity, the ple- beians carried on a struggle for a share in the offices and dignities of the state which never ceased until the Roman government, as yet only republican in name, became in fact a real democracy, in which patrician and plebeian shared equally in all emoluments and privileges. Coriolanus. — The tradition of Coriolanus illustrates in what manner the tribunes cared for the rights of the common people and protected them from the oppression of the nobles. During a severe famine at Rome, Gelon, the King of Syracuse, sent large quantities of grain to the capital for distribution among the suffer- ing poor. A certain patrician, Coriolanus by name, made a proposal that none of the grain should be given to the plebeians save on con- dition that they give up their tribunes. These officials straightway summoned him before the plebeian assembly,^ on the charge of having broken the solemn covenant of the Sacred Mount, and so bitter was the feeling against him that he was obliged to flee from Rome. He DOW allied himself with the Volscians, enemies of Rome, and even led their armies against his native city. An embassy from the Senate was sent to him, to sue for peace. But the spirit of Coriolanus was bitter and revengeful, and he would listen to none of their proposals. Nothing availed to move him until his mother, at the head of a train of Roman matrons, came to his tent, and with tears pleaded with him to spare the city. Her entreaties and the " soft prayers " of his own wife and children ^ The Assembly of Tribes {comiHa tributa), an assembly which came into existence about this time. It was made up wholly of plebeians, and was pre- sided over by the tribunes. Later, there came into existence another tribal assembly, which was composed of patricians and plebeians, and presided over by consuls or praetors. Some authorities are inclined to regard these two assemblies as one and the same body; but others, among whom is Mommsen, with probably better reason, look upon them as two distinct organizations. 236 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. prevailed, and with the words' " Mother, thou hast saved "Rome, but lost thy son," he led away the Volscian army. Cincinnatus made Dictator. — The enemies of Rome, taking advantage of the dissensions of the nobles and commons, pressed upon the frontiers of the republic on all sides. In 458 B.C., the T^quians, while one of the consuls was away fighting the Sabines, defeated the forces of the other, and shut them up in a narrow valley, whence escape seemed impossible. There was great terror in Rome when news of the situation of the army was brought to the city. The Senate immediately appointed Cincinnatus, a noble patri- cian, dictator. The ambassadors that carried to him the message from the Senate found him upon his little farm near the Tiber, at work behind the plough. Accepting the office at once, he hastily gathered an army, marched to the reUef of the consul, captured the entire army of the y^quians, and sent them beneath the yoke.^ Cincinnatus then led his army back to Rome in triumph, laid down his office, and sought again the retirement of his farm. The Decemvirs and the Tables of Laws. — Written laws are always a great safeguard against oppression. Until what shall constitute a crime and what shall be its penalty are clearly written down and well known and understood by all, judges may render unfair decisions, or inflict unjust punishment, and yet run lit- tle risk — unless they go altogether too far — of being called to an account; for no one but themselves knows what the law or the penalty really is. Hence in all struggles of the people against the tyranny of the ruling class, the demand for written laws is one of the first measures taken by the people for the protection of their persons and property. Thus we have seen the people of Athens, early in their struggle with the nobles, demanding and obtaining a code of written laws (see p. 119). The same thing now took place at Rome. The plebeians demanded that a code 1 This was formed of two spears thrust firmly into the ground and crossed a few feet from the earth by a third. Prisoners of war were forced to pass beneath this yoke as a symbol of submission. THE DECEMVIRS. 237 of laws be drawn up, in accordance with which the consuls, who exercised judicial powers, should render their decisions. The l^atricians offered a stubborn resistance to their wishes, but finally were forced to yield to the popular clamor. A commission was sent to the Greek cities of Southern Italy and to Athens to study the Grecian laws and customs. Upon the return of this embassy, a commission of ten magistrates, who were known as decemvirs, was appointed to frame a code of laws (451 B.C.). These officers, while engaged in this work, were also to administer the entire government, and so were invested with the supreme power of the state. The patricians gave up their consuls and the plebeians their tribunes. At the end of the first year, the task of the board was quite far from being finished, so a new decemvirate was elected to complete the work. Appius Claudius was the only member of the old board that was returned to the new. The code was soon finished, and the laws were written on twelve tablets of brass, which were fastened to the rostrum, or orator's platform in the Forum, where they might be seen and read by all. These '' Laws of the Twelve Tables " were to Roman jurisprudence what the good laws of Solon (see p. 120) were to the Athenian constitution. They formed the basis of all new legislation for many centuries, and constituted a part of the educa- tion of the Roman youth — every school-boy being required to learn them by heart. Misrule and Overthrow of the Decemvirs. — The first decemvirs used the great power lodged in their hands with justice and pru- dence ; but the second board, under the leadership of Appius Claudius, instituted a most infamous and tyrannical rule. The result was a second secession of the plebeians to the Sacred Hill. This procedure, which once before had proved so effectual in securing justice to the oppressed, had a similar issue now. The situation was so critical that the decemvirs were forced to resign. The consulate and the tribunate were restored. Eight of the 238 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. decemvirs were forced to go into exile ; Appius Claudius and one other, having been imprisoned, committed suicide. Consular, or Military Tribunes. — The overthrow of the de- cemvirate was followed by a long struggle between the nobles and the commons, which was an effort on the part of the latter to gain admission to the consulship ; for up to this time only a patrician could hold that office. The contention resulted in a compromise. It was agreed that, in place of the two consuls, the people 7night elect from either order magistrates, who should be known as " mili- tary tribunes with consular powers." These officers, whose num- bers varied, differed from consuls more in name than in functions or authority. In fact, the plebeians had gained the office, but not the name (444 B.C.). The Censors. — No sooner had the plebeians virtually secured admission to the consulship, than the jealous and exclusive patri- cians commenced scheming to rob them of the fruit of the victory they had gained. They effected this by taking from the consulate some of its most distinctive duties and powers, and conferring them upon two new patrician officers called censors. The func- tions of these magistrates were many and important. They took the census, and thus assigned to every man his position in the different classes of the citizens ; and they could, for immorahty or any improper conduct, not only degrade a man from his rank, but deprive him of his vote. It was their duty to watch the public morals and in case of necessity to administer wholesome advice. Thus we are told of their reproving the young Romans for wear- ing tunics with long sleeves — an Oriental and effeminate custom — and for neglecting to marry upon arriving at a proper age. From the name of these Roman officers comes our word censori- ous, meaning fault-finding. The first censors were elected probably in the year 444 B.C. ; about one hundred years afterwards, in 351 B.C., the plebeians secured the right of holding this office also. Siege and Capture of Veii. — We must now turn to notice the fortunes of Rome in war. Almost from the founding of the city, THE SACKING OF ROME. 239 we find its warlike citizens carrying on a fierce contest with their powerful Etruscan neighbors on the north. Veii was one of the largest and richest of the cities of Etruria. Around this the war gathered. The Romans, like the Gre- cians at Troy, attacked its walls for ten years. The length of the siege, and the necessity of maintaining a force permanently in the field, led to the establishment of a paid standing army ; for hitherto the soldier had not only equipped himself, but had served with- out pay. Thus was laid the basis of that military power which was destined to effect the conquest of the world, and then, in the hands of ambitious and favorite generals, to overthrow the republic itself. The capture of Veii by the dictator Camillus (396 B.C.) was followed by that of many other Etruscan towns. Rome was enriched by th :ir spoils, and became the centre o ■• ^ ^rge and lucrative trade. The fron- tiers of the republic we, ushed out even beyond the utmost limits of the kingdom before its overthrow. All that was lost by the revolution had been now regained, and much besides had been won. At this moment there broke upon the city a storm from the north, which all but cut short the story we are narrating. Sack of Rome by the Gauls (390 b.c). — We have already mentioned how, in very remote times, the tribes of Gaul crossed the Alps and established themselves in Northern Italy (see p. 223). While the Romans were conquering the towns of Etruria, these barbarian hordes were moving southward, and overrunning and devastating the countries of Central Italy. News was brought to Rome that they were advancing upon that city. A Roman army met them on the banks of the river Allia, ROMAN SOLDIER. 240 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. eleven miles from the capital. The Romans were driven in great panic from the field. It would be impossible to picture the con- sternation and despair that reigned at Rome when the fugitives brought to the city intelligence of the terrible disaster. It was never forgotten, and the day of the battle of Allia was ever after a black day in the Roman calendar. The sacred vessels of the temples were buried ; the eternal fires of Vesta were hurriedly GAULS iN SIGHT OF ROME. borne by their virgin keepers to a place of safety in Etruria ; and a large part of the population fled in dismay across the Tiber. No attempt was made to defend any portion of the city save the citadel. This stronghold was kept by a little garrison, under the command of the hero Marius Manlius. A tradition tells how, when the barbarians, under cover of the darkness of night, had climbed the steep rock and had almost effected an entrance to THE REBUILDING OF ROME. 241 the citadel, the defenders were awakened by the cackling of some geese, which the piety of the famishing soldiers had spared, because these birds were sacred to Juno. News was now brought the Gauls that the Venetians were over- running their possessions in Northern Italy. This led them to open negotiations with the Romans. For one thousand pounds of gold, according to the historian Livy, the Gauls agreed to retire from the city. As the story runs, while the gold was being weighed out in the Forum, the Romans complained that the weights were false, when Brennus, the Gallic leader, threw his sword also into the scales, exclaiming, " Voe. victisf' ''Woe to the vanquished." Just at this moment, so the tale continues, Camillus, a brave patri- cian general, appeared upon the scene with a Roman army that had been gathered from the fugitives ; and, as he scattered the barbarians with heavy blows, he exclaimed, " Rome is ransomed with steel and not with gold," According to one account Brennus himself was taken prisoner ; but another tradition says that he escaped, carrying with him not only the ransom, but a vast booty besides. The Rebuilding of Rome. — When the fugitives returned to Rome after the withdrawal of the Gauls, they found the city a heap of ruins. Some of the poorer classes, shrinking from the labor of rebuilding their old homes, proposed to abandon the site and make Veil their new capital. But love for the old spot at last prevailed over all the persuasions of indolence, and the people, with admirable courage, set themselves to the task of rebuilding their homes. It was a repetition of the scene at Athens after the retreat of the Persians (see p. 136). The city was speedily restored, and was soon enjoying her old position of supremacy among the surrounding states. There were some things, liow- ever, which even Roman resolution and perseverance could not restore. These were the ancient records and documents, through whose irreparable loss the early history of Rome is involved in great obscurity and uncertainty. Treason and Death of Manlius. — The ravages of the Gauls 242 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. left the poor plebeians in a most pitiable condition. In order to rebuild their dwellings and restock their farms, they were obliged to borrow money of the rich patricians, and consequently soon began again to experience the insult and oppression that were ever incident to the condition of the debtor class at Rome. The patrician Manhus, the hero of the brave defence of the Capitol, now came forward as the champion of the plebeians. He sold the larger part of his estates, and devoted the proceeds to the relief of the debtor class. It seems evident that in thus under- taking the cause of the commons he had personal aims and ambi- tions. The patricians determined to crush him. He was finally brought to trial before the popular assembly, on the charge of conspiring to restore the office of king. From the Forum, where the people were gathered, the Capitol, which Manlius had so bravely defended against the barbarians, was in full sight. Point- ing to the temples he had saved, he appealed to the gods and to the gratitude of the Roman people. The people responded to the appeal in a way altogether natural. They refused to condemn him. But brought to trial a second time, and now in a grove whence the citadel could not be seen, he was sentenced to death, and was thrown from the Tarpeian Rock.^ This event occurred 384 B.C. Plebeians admitted to the Consulship. — For nearly half a cen- tury after the death of Manlius the most important events in the history of Rome centre about the struggle of the plebeians for admission to those offices of the government whence the jealousy of the patricians still excluded them. The Licinian laws, so called from one of their proposers, the tribune C. Licinius, besides reliev- ing the poor of usurious interest, and effecting a more just division of the public lands, also provided that consuls should be chosen yearly, as at first (see p. 238), and that one of the consuls should 1 The Tarpeian Rock was the name given to the cUff which the Capitoline Hill formed on the side towards the Tiber (or towards the Palatine, according to some). It received its name from Tarpeia, daughter of one of the legen- dary keepers of the citadel. State criminals were frequently executed by being thrown from this rock. THE FIRST SAMNITE WAR. 243 be a plebeian. This last provision opened to any one of the ple- beian class the highest office in the state. The nobles, when they saw that it would be impossible to resist the popular demand, had recourse to the old device. They effected a compromise, whereby the judicial powers of the consuls were taken from them and con- ferred upon a new magistrate, who bore the name of praetor. Only patricians, of course, were to be ehgible to this new office. They then permitted the Licinian laws to pass (367 B.C.). During the latter half of the fourth century b.c. (between the years 356-300) the plebeians gained admittance to the dictator- ship, the censorship, the prsetorship, and to the College of Augurs and the College of Pontiffs. They had been admitted to the College of Priests having charge of the Sibylline books, at the time of the passing of the Licinian laws. With plebeians in all these positions, the rights of the lower order were fairly secured against oppressive and partisan decisions on the part of the magistrates, and against party fraud in the taking of the auspices and in the regulation of the calendar. There was now political equality between the nobility and the commonalty. Wars for the Mastery of Italy. The First Samnite War (343-341 b.c). — The union of the two orders in the state allowed the Romans now to employ their un- divided strength in subjugating the different states of the peninsula. The most formidable competitors of the Romans for supremacy in Italy were the Samnites, rough and warlike mountaineers who held the Apennines to the east of Latium. They were worthy rivals of the ''children of Mars." The successive struggles between these martial races are known as the First, Second, and Third Samnite wars. They extended over a period of half a century, and in their course involved almost all the states of Italy. Of the first of this series of wars we know very little, although Livy wrote a long, but unfortunately very unreliable, narration of it. In the midst of the struggle, Rome was confronted by a dan- 244 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. gerous revolt of her Latin allies, and, leaving the war unfinished, turned her forces upon the insurgents. Revolt of the Latin Cities (340-338 b.c). — The strife between the Romans and their Latin allies was simply the old contest within the walls of the capital between the patricians and the plebeians transferred to a larger arena. x4lS the nobles had oppressed the commons, so now both these orders united in the oppression of the Latins — the plebeians in their bettered circumstances forget- ting the lessons of adversity. The Latin allies demanded a share in the government, and that the lands acquired by conquest should be distributed among them as well as among Roman citi- zens. The Romans refused. All Latium rose in revolt against the injustice and tyranny of the oppressor. After about three years' hard fighting, the rebellion was sub- dued. The Latin League was now broken up. Some of the towns retained their independence (Tibur, Praeneste, and Cora) ; some received full Roman citizenship (Aricia, Lanuvium, and Nomentum) ; while others received only the private rights of Roman citizens, the right of suffrage being withheld. Second and Third Samnite Wars (326-290 b.c). — In a few years after the close of the Latin contest, the Romans were at war again with their old rivals, the Samnites. Notwithstanding the latter were thoroughly defeated in this second contest, still it was not long before they were again in arms and engaged in their third struggle with Rome. This time they had formed a powerful co- alition which embraced all the states of Italy, including the Greek cities in the south and the Gallic tribes in the north. Roman courage rose with the danger. The united armies of the league met with a most disastrous defeat (at Sentinum, 295 B.C.), and the power of the coalition was broken. One after an- other the states that had joined the alliance were chastised. The Samnites were overpowered, the Gauls were routed, the Etruscans were crushed, and all the important Greek cities of Southern Italy, save Tarentum, were forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome. War withPyrrhus (282-272 ?,.c.). — Tarentum was one of the J^FAJ^ WITH PYRRHUS. 245 most noted of the Hellenic cities of Magna Graecia. It was a sea- port on the Calabrian coast, and had grown opulent through the extended trade of its merchants. The capture of some Roman vessels, and an insult offered to an envoy of the republic by the Tarentines, led to a declaration of war against them by the Roman Senate. The Tarentines turned to Greece for aid. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, a eousin of Alexander the Great, who had an ambition to build up such an empire in the West as his renowned kinsman had established in the East, responded to their entreaties, and crossed over into Italy with a small army of Greek mercenaries and twenty war-elephants. He organized and drilled the effeminate Taren- tines, and soon felt prepared to face the Romans. The hostile armies met at Heraclea (280 B.C.). It is said that when Pyrrhus, who had underestimated his foe, observed the skill which the Romans evinced in forming their line of battle, he ex- claimed, in admiration, " In war, at least, these men are not bar- barians." The battle was won for Pyrrhus by his war-elephants, the sight of which, being new to the Romans, caused them to flee from the field in dismay. But Pyrrhus had lost thousands of his bravest troops. Victories gained by such losses in a country where he could not recruit his army, he saw clearly, meant final defeat. As he looked over the battle-field, he is said to have turned to his companions and remarked, " Another such victory, and I must return to Epirus alone." He noticed also, and not without appre- ciating its significance, that the wounds of the Roman soldiers killed in the action were all in front. " Had I such soldiers," said he, " I should soon be master of the world." The prudence of the victorious Pyrrhus led him to send to the Romans an embassy with proposals of peace. When the Senate hesitated, its resolution was fixed by the eloquence of the aged Appius : '' Rome," exclaimed he, " shall never treat with a victori- ous foe." The ambassadors were obliged to return to Pyrrhus unsuccessful in their mission. Pyrrhus, according to the Roman story-tellers, who most lavishly embellished this chapter of their history, was not more successful 246 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. in attempts at bribery than in the arts of negotiation. Upon his attempting by large offers of gold to win Fabricius, who had been intrusted by the Senate with an important embassy, the sturdy old Roman replied, " Poverty, with an honest name, is more to be desired than wealth." After a second victory, as disastrous as his first, Pyrrhus crossed over into Sicily, to aid the Grecians there in their struggle with the Carthaginians. At first he was everywhere successful ; but finally fortune turned against him, and he was glad to escape from the island. Recrossing the straits into Italy, he once more engaged the Romans, but at the battle of Beneventum suffered a disastrous and final defeat at the hands of the consul Curius Dentatus (274 B.C.). Leaving a sufficient force to garrison Tarentum, the bafiled and disappointed king set sail for Epirus. He had scarcely embarked before Tarentum surrendered to the Romans (272 B.C.). This ended the struggles for the mastery of Italy. Rome was now mistress of all the peninsula south of the Arnus and the Rubicon. It was now her care to consolidate these possessions, and to fasten her hold upon them, by means of a perfect network of colonies ^ and military roads. 1 '* Colonies were not all of the same character. They must be distin- guished into two classes — the colonies of Roman citizens and the Latin colo- nies. The colonies of Roman citizens consisted usually of three hundred men of approved military experience, who went forth with their families to occupy conquered cities of no great magnitude, but which were important as military positions, being usually on the sea-coast. These three hundred families formed a sort of patrician caste, while the old inhabitants sank into the con- dition formerly occupied by the plebeians at Rome. The heads of these fami- lies retained all their rights as Roman citizens, and might repair to Rome to vote in the popular assemblies." — Liddell's History of Rome. The Latin colonies numbered about thirty at the time of the Second Punic War. A few of these were colonies that had been founded by the old Latin Confederacy ; but the most were towns that had been established by Rome subsequent to the dissolution of the League (see p. 244). The term Latin was applied to these later colonies of purely Roman origin, for the reason that they enjoyed the same rights as the Latin towns that had retained their inde- pendence. Thus the inhabitants of a Latin colony possessed some of the most valuable of the private rights of Roman citizens, but they had no politi- cal rights at the capital. CARTHAGE. 247 CHAPTER XXIV. THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. (264-241 B.C.) Carthage and the Carthaginian Empire. — Foremost among the cities founded by the Phoenicians upon the different shores of the Mediterranean was Carthage, upon the northern coast of Africa. The city is thought to have had its beginnings in a small trading-post, established late in the ninth century B.C., about one hundred years before the founding of Rome. Carthage was simply another Tyre. She was mistress and queen of the Western Mediterranean. At the period we have now reached, she held sway, through peaceful colonization or by force of arms, over all the northern coast of Africa from the Greater Syrtis to the Pillars of Hercules, and possessed the larger part of Sicily, as well as Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Isles, Southern Spain, and scores of little islands scattered here and there in the neighboring seas. With all its shores dotted with her colonies and fortresses, and swept in every direction by the Carthaginian war-galleys, the Western Mediterranean had become a " Phoenician lake," in which, as the Carthaginians boasted, no one dared wash his hands without their permission. Carthaginian Government and Religion. — The government of Carthage, like that of Rome, was republican in form. Corre- sponding to the Roman consuls, two magistrates, called Suffetes, stood at the head of the state. The Senate was composed of the heads of the leading families ; its duties and powers were very like those of the Roman Senate. So well-balanced was the constitu- tion, and so prudent was its administration, that six hundred years of Carthaginian history exhibited not a single revolution. The religion of the Carthaginians was the old Canaanitish wor- 248 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. ship of Baal, or the Sun. To Moloch, — another name for the fire-god, — " who rejoiced in human victims and in parents' tears," they offered human sacrifices. Rome and Carthage compared. — These two great republics, which for more than five centuries had been slowly extending their limits and maturing their powers upon the opposite shores of the Mediterranean, were now about to begin one of the most memorable struggles of all antiquity — a duel that was to last, with every vicissitude of fortune, for over one hundred years. As was the case in the contest between Athens and Sparta, so now the two rival cities, with their allies and dependencies, were very nearly matched in strength and resources. The Romans, it is true, were almost destitute of a navy ; while the Carthaginians had the largest and most splendidly equipped fleet that ever patrolled the waters of the Mediterranean. But although the Carthaginians were superior to the Romans in naval warfare, they were greatly their inferiors in land encounters. The Carthaginian territory, moreover, was widely scattered, embracing extended coasts and isolated islands ; while the Roman possessions were compact, and confined to a single and easily defended peninsula. Again, the Carthaginian armies were formed chiefly of mercenaries, while those of Rome were recruited very largely from the ranks of the Roman people. And then the subject states of Carthage were mostly of another race, language, and religion from their Phoeni- cian conquerors, and were ready, upon the first disaster to the ruling city, to drop away from their allegiance ; while the Latin allies and Italian dependencies of Rome were close kindred to her in race and religion, and so, through natural impulse, for the most part remained loyal to her during even the darkest periods of her struggle with her rival. The Beginning of the War. — Lying between Italy and the coast of Africa is the large island of Sicily. It is in easy sight of the former, and its southernmost point is only ninety miles from the latter. At the commencement of the First Punic War, the Car- thaginians held possession of all the island save a strip of the FIRST NAVAL VICTORY. 249 eastern coast, which was under the sway of the Greek city of Syra- cuse. The Greeks and Carthaginians had carried on an ahnost uninterrupted struggle through two centuries for the control of the island. The Romans had not yet set- foot upon it. But it was destined to become the scene of the most terrible encounters be- tween the armaments of the two rivals. Pyrrhus had foreseen it all. As he withdrew from the island, he said, ^' What a fine battle- field we are leaving for the Romans and Carthaginians." In the year 264 B.C., on a flimsy pretext of giving protection to some friends, the Romans crossed over to the island. That act committed them to a career of foreign conquest destined to con- tinue till their arms had made the circuit of the Mediterranean. The Syracusans and Carthaginians, old enemies and rivals though they had been, joined their forces against the insolent new- comers. The allies were completely defeated in the first battle, and the Roman army obtained a sure foothold upon the island. In the following year both consuls were placed at the head of formidable armies for the conquest of Sicily. A large portion of the island was quickly overrun, and many of the cities threw off their allegiance to Syracuse and Carthage, and became allies of Rome. Hiero, king of Syracuse, seeing that he was upon the losing side, deserted the cause of the Carthaginians, and formed an alliance with the Romans, and ever after remained their firm friend. The Romans gain their First Naval Victory (260 e.g.). — Their experience during the past campaigns had shown the Ro- mans that if they were to cope successfully with the Carthaginians, they must be able to meet them upon the sea as well as upon the land. So they determined to build a fleet. A Carthaginian gal- ley that had been wrecked upon the shores of Italy, served as a pattern. It is affirmed that, within the almost incredibly short space of sixty days, a growing forest was converted into a fleet of one hundred and twenty war galleys. The consul C. Duillius was entrusted with the command of the fleet. He met the Carthaginian squadron near the city and prom- 250 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. ontory of Mylae, on the northern coast of Sicily. Now, distrust- ing their ability to match the skill of their enemy in naval tactics, the Romans had provided each of their vessels with a drawbridge. As soon as a Carthaginian ship came near enough to a Roman vessel, this gangway was allowed to fall upon the approaching galley ; and the Roman soldiers, rushing along the bridge, were soon engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict with their enemies, in which species of encounter the former were unequalled. The result was a complete victory for the Romans. The joy at Rome was unbounded. It inspired in the more sanguine splendid visions of maritime command and glory. The Mediterranean should speedily become a Roman lake, in which no vessel might float without the consent of Rome. The Romans carry the War into Africa. — The results of the naval engagement at Mylae encouraged the Romans to push the war with redoubled energy. They resolved to carry it into Africa. An immense Carthaginian fleet that disputed the passage of the Roman squadron was almost annihilated, and the Romans dis- embarked near Carthage. Regulus, one of the consuls who led the army of invasion, sent word to Rome that he had sealed up the gates of Carthage with terror. P'inally, however, Regulus suffered a crushing defeat, and was made prisoner. A fleet which was sent to bear away the remnants of the shattered army was wrecked in a terrific storm off the coast of Sicily, and the shores of the island were strewn with the wreckage of between two and three hundred ships and with the bodies of one hundred thousand men. Undismayed at the terrible disaster that had overtaken the transport fleet, the Romans set to work to build another, and made a second descent upon the African coast. The expedition, however, accomplished nothing of importance ; and the fleet on its return voyage was almost destroyed, just off the coast of Italy, by a tremendous storm. Regulus and the Carthaginian Embassy. — For a few years the Romans refrained from tempting again the hostile powers of the sea, and Sicily became once more the battle-ground of the THE CARTHAGINIAN EMBASSY. 251 contending rivals. At last, having lost a great battle (battle of Panormus, 251 b.c), the Carthaginians became dispirited, and sent an embassy to Rome, to negotiate for peace, or, if that couki not be reached, to effect an exchange of prisoners. Among the commissioners was Regains, who since his capture, five years before, had been held a prisoner in Africa. Before setting out from Carthage he had promised to return if the embassy were un- successful. For the sake of his own release, the Carthaginians supposed he would counsel peace, or at least urge an exchange of prisoners. But it is related, that upon arrival at Rome, he coun- selled war instead of peace, at the same time revealing to the Senate the enfeebled condition of Carthage. As to the exchange of prisoners, he said, " Let those who have surrendered when they ought to have died, die in the land which has witnessed their disgrace." The Roman Senate, following his counsel, rejected all the pro- posals of the embassy ; and Regulus, in spite of the tears and entreaties of his wife and friends, turned away from Rome, and set out for Carthage to bear such fate as he well knew the Carthaginians, in their disappointment and anger, would be sure to visit upon him. The tradition goes on to tell how, upon his arrival at Carthage, he was confined in a cask driven full of spikes, and then left to die of starvation and pain. This part of the tale has been dis- credited, and the finest touches of the other portions are supposed to have been added by the story-tellers. Loss of Two More Roman Fleets. — After the failure of the Carthaginian embassy, the war went on for several years by land and sea with varying vicissitudes. At last, on the coast of Sicily, one of the consuls, Claudius, met with an overwhelming defeat. Almost a hundred vessels of his fleet were lost. The disaster caused the greatest alarm at Rome. Superstition increased the fears of the people. It was reported that just before the battle, when the auspices were being taken, and the sacred chickens would not eat, Claudius had ejiven orders to have them thrown 252 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. into the sea, irreverently remarking, '^ At any rate, they shall drink." Imagination was free to depict what further evils the offended gods might inflict upon the Roman state. The gloomiest forebodings might have found justification in subsequent events. The other consul just now met with a great disaster. He was proceeding along the southern coast of Sicily with a squadron of eight hundred merchantmen and over one hundred war galleys, the former loaded with grain for the Roman army on the island. A severe storm arising, the squadron was beaten to pieces upon the rocks. Not a single ship escaped. The coast for miles was strewn with broken planks, and with bodies, and heaped with vast windrows of grain cast up by the waves. Close of the First Punic War. — The war had now lasted for fifteen years. Four Roman fleets had been destroyed, three of which had been sunk or broken to pieces by storms. Of the fourteen hundred vessels which had been lost, seven hundred were war galleys, — all large and costly quinqueremes, that is, vessels with five banks of oars. Only one hundred of these had fallen into the hands of the enemy ; the remainder were a sacrifice to the malign and hostile power of the waves. Such successive blows from an invisible hand were enough to blanch the faces even of the sturdy Romans. Neptune manifestly denied to the '■'■ Children of Mars " the realm of the sea. It was impossible for the six years following the last disaster to infuse any spirit into the struggle. In 247 B.C., Hamilcar Barcas, the father of the great Hannibal, assumed the command of the Carthaginian forces, and for several years conducted the war with great abiUty on the island of Sicily, even making Rome tremble for the safety of her Italian possessions. Once more the Romans determined to commit their cause to the element that had been so unfriendly to them. A fleet of two hundred vessels was built and equipped, but entirely by private subscription ; for the Senate feared that public sentiment would not sustain them in levying a tax for fitting up another costly CLOSE OF THE WAR. 253 armament as an offering to the insatiable Neptune. This people's squadron, as we may call it, was intrusted to the command of the consul Catulus. He met the Carthaginian fleet under the com- mand of the Admiral Hanno, near the ^Egatian islands, and inflicted upon it a crushing defeat. The Carthaginians now sued for peace. A treaty was at length arranged, the terms of which required that Carthage should give up all claims to the island of Sicily, surrender all her prisoners, and pay an indemnity of 3200 talents (about $4,000,000), one- third of which was to be paid down, and the balance in ten yearly payments. Thus ended (241 B.C.), after a continuance of twenty- four years, the first great struggle between Carthage and Rome. 254 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR, CHAPTER XXV. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. (218-201 B.C.) Rome between the First and the Second Punic War. The First Roman Province. — For the twenty-three years that followed the close of the first struggle between Rome and Car- thage, the two rivals strained every power and taxed every re- source in preparation for a renewal of the contest. The Romans settled the affairs of Sicily, organizing all of it, save the lands belonging to Syracuse, as a province of the re- public. This was the first territory beyond the limits of Italy chat Rome had conquered, and the Sicilian the first of Roman provinces. But as the imperial city extended her conquests, her provincial possessions increased in number and size until they formed at last a perfect cordon about the Mediterranean. Each province was governed by a magistrate sent out from the capital, and paid an annual tribute, or tax, to Rome. Rome acquires Sardinia and Corsica. — The first acquisition by the Romans of lands beyond the peninsula seems to have created in them an insatiable ambition for foreign conquests. They soon found a pretext for seizing the island of Sardinia, the most ancient and, after Sicily, the most prized of the possessions of the Carthaginians. The island, in connection with Corsica, which was also seized, was formed into a Roman province. With her hands upon these islands, the authority of Rome m the Western, or Tuscan Sea, was supreme. The Illyrian Corsairs are punished. — At about the same time, the Romans also extended their influence over the seas that wash the eastern shores of Italy. For a long time the Adriatic and Ionian 30 35 THE MEDITERRANEAN LANDS at the beginning of the SECOND PUNIC WAR. Boman Possessions and Allies I | Free Greek States I I Carthaginian do | j Syrian Possessions I I Macedonian do I I Egyptian do I I 25 30 3S e liberahty of the conqueror. Sixty thousand couches were set for the multitudes. The shows of the theatre and the combats of the arena followed one another in an endless round. " Above the combats of the amphitheatre floated for the first time the awning of silk, the immense velarium of a thousand colors, woven from the rarest and richest products of the East, to protect the people from the sun" (Gibbon). Caesar as a Statesman. — Caesar was great as a general, yet greater, if possible, as a statesman. The measures which he in- stituted evince profound political sagacity and surprising breadth of view. He sought to reverse the jealous and narrow policy of Rome in the past, and to this end rebuilt both Carthage and Corinth, 298 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. and founded numerous colonies in all the different provinces, in which he settled about one hundred thousand of the poorer citi- zens of the capital. Upon some of the provincials he conferred full Roman citizenship, and upon others Latin rights (see p. 246, note), and thus strove to blend the varied peoples and races within the boundaries of the empire in a real nationality, with community of interests and sympathies. He reformed the calendar so as to bring the festivals once more in their proper seasons, and provided against further confusion by making the year consist of 365 days, with an added day for every fourth or leap year. Besides these achievements, Csesar projected many vast under- takings, which the abrupt termination of his life prevented his carrying into execution. Among these was his projected conquest of the Parthians and the Germans. He proposed, in revenge for the defeat and death of his friend Crassus, to break to pieces the Parthian empire ; then, sweeping with an army around above the Euxine, to destroy the dreaded hordes of Scythia ; and then, falling upon the German tribes in the rear, to crush their power forever, and thus relieve the Roman empire of their constant threat. He was about to set out on the expedition against the Parthians, when he was struck down by assassins. The Death of Csesar. — Csesar had his bitter personal enemies, who never ceased to plot his downfall. There were, too, sincere lovers of the old republic, who longed to see restored the liberty which the conqueror had overthrown. The impression began to prevail that Caesar was aiming to make himself king. A crown was several times offered him in public by Mark Antony ; but, seeing the manifest displeasure of the people, he each time pushed it aside. Yet there is no doubt that secretly he desired it. It was reported that he proposed to rebuild the walls of Troy, whence the Roman race had sprung, and make that ancient capital the seat of the new Roman empire. Others professed to beheve that the arts and charms of the Egyptian Cleopatra, who had borne him a son at Rome, would entice him to make Alexandria the centre of the proposed kingdom. So many, out of love for Rome and the old THE DEATH OF C^SAR. 299 republic, were led to enter into a conspiracy against the life of Caesar with those who sought to rid themselves of the dictator for other and personal reasons. The Ides (the 15th day) of March, 44 B.C., upon which day the Senate convened, witnessed the assassination. Seventy or eighty conspirators, headed by Cassius and Brutus, both of whom had received special favors from the hands of Csesar, were con- cerned in the plot. The soothsayers must have had some knowl- edge of the plans of the conspirators, for they had warned Csesar to " beware of the Ides of March." On his way to the Senate- meeting that day, a paper warning him of his danger was thrust into his hand ; but, not suspecting its urgent nature, he did not open it. As he entered the assembly chamber he observed the astrologer Spurinna, and remarked carelessly to him, referring to his predic- tion, "The Ides of March have come." "Yes," replied Spurinna, " but not gone." No sooner had Cassar taken his seat than the conspirators crowded about him as if to present a petition. Upon a signal from one of their number their daggers were drawn. For a mo- ment Caesar defended himself ; but seeing Brutus, upon whom he had lavished gifts and favors, among the conspirators, he exclaimed reproachfully, Et tu, Brute I — "Thou, too, Brutus!" drew his mantle over his face, and received unresistingly their further thrusts. Pierced with twenty-three wounds, he sank dead at the foot of Pompey's statue. Funeral Oration by Mark Antony. — The conspirators, or "liberators, "as they called themselves, had thought that the Sen- ate would confirm, and the people applaud, their act. But both people and senators, struck with consternation, were silent. Men's faces grew pale as they recalled the proscriptions of Sulla, and saw in the assassination of Csesar the first act in a similar reign of terror. As the conspirators issued from the assembly hall, and entered the Forum, holding aloft their bloody daggers, instead of the expected acclamations they were met by an ominous silence. The liberators hastened for safety to the Temple of Jupiter Capi- 300 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. tolinuSj going thither ostensibly for the purpose of giving thanks for the death of the tyrant. Upon the day set for the funeral ceremonies, Mark Antony, the trusted friend and secretary of Caesar, mounted the rostrum in the Forum to deliver the usual funeral oration. He recounted the great deeds of Caesar, the glory he had conferred upon the Roman name, dwelt upon his liberality and his munificent bequests to the people — even to some who were now his murderers ; and, when he had wrought the feelings of the multitude to the highest ten- sion, he raised the robe of Caesar, and showed the rents made by the daggers of the assassins. Caesar had always been beloved by the people and idol- ized by his soldiers. They were now- driven almost to frenzy with grief and indignation. Seizing weapons and torches, they rushed through the streets, vowing vengeance upon the conspirators. The liberators, how- ever, escaped from the fury of the mob, and fled from Rome, Bru- tus and Cassius seeking refuge in Greece. The Second Triumvirate. — Antony had gained possession of the will and papers of Caesar, and now, under color of carrying out the testament of the dictator, according to a decree of the Senate, entered upon a course of high-handed usurpation. He was aided in his designs by Lepidus, one of Caesar's old lieutenants. Very soon he was exercising all the powers of a real dictator. "The tyrant is dead," said Cicero, "but the tyranny still lives." This was a bitter commentary upon the words of Brutus, who, as he drew his dagger from the body of Caesar, turned to Cicero, and exclaimed, " Rejoice, O Father of your Country, for Rome is free." Rome could not be free, the republic could not be re- established because the old love for virtue and hberty had died MARK ANTONY. THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. 301 out from among the people — had been overwhelmed by the rising tide of vice, corruption, sensuality, and irreligion that had set in upon the capital. To what length Antony would have gone in his career of usurpa- tion it is difficult to say, had he not been opposed at this point by Caius Octavius, the grand-neph- ew of Julius Caesar, and the one whom he had named in his will as his heir and suc- cessor. Upon the Senate de- claring in favor • of Octavius, civil war imme- diately broke out between him and Anto- ny and Lepi- dus. After several indeci- sive battles be- tween the for- ces of the rival JULIUS C/ESAR. (From a Bust in the Museum of the Louvre.) competitors, Octavius proposed to x^ntony and Lepidus a reconciliation. The three met on a small island in the Rhenus, a little stream in North- ern Italy, and there formed a league known as the Second Trium- virate (43 B.C.). The plans of the triumvirs were infamous. They first divided the world among themselves : Octavius was to have the govern- ment of the West ; Antony, that of the East ; while to Lepidus 302 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. fell the control of Africa. A general proscription, such as had marked the coming to power of Sulla (see p. 283), was then re- solved upon. It was agreed that each should give up to the assassin such friends of his as had incurred the ill will of either of the other triumvirs. Under this arrangement Octavius gave up his friend Cicero, — who had incurred the hatred of Antony by opposing his schemes, — and allowed his name to be put at the head of the list of the proscribed. The friends of the orator urged him to flee the country. " Let me die," said he, "in my fatherland, which I have so often saved ! " His attendants were hurrying him, half unwilling, towards the coast, when his pursuers came up and despatched him in the lit- ter in which he was being carried. His head was taken to Rome, and set up in front of the rostrum, " from which he had so often addressed the people with his eloquent appeals for liberty." It is told that Fulvia, the wife of Antony, ran her gold bodkin through the tongue, in revenge for the bitter philippics it had uttered against her husband. The right hand of the victim — the hand that had penned the eloquent orations — was nailed to the rostrum, Cicero was but one victim among many hundreds. All the dreadful scenes of the days of Sulla were re-enacted. Three hundred senators and two thousand knights were murdered. The estates of the wealthy were confiscated, and conferred by the triumvirs upon their friends and favorites. Last Struggle of the Eepublic at Philippi (42 b.c.). — The friends of the old republic, and the enemies of the triumvirs, were meanwhile rallying in the East. Brutus and Cassius were the ani- mating spirits. The Asiatic provinces were plundered to raise money for the soldiers of the liberators. Octavius and Antony, as soon as they had disposed of their enemies in Italy, crossed the Adriatic into Greece, to disperse the forces of the republicans there. The liberators, advancing to meet them, passed over the Hellespont into Thrace. Tradition tells how one night a spectre appeared to Brutus and seemed to say, " I am thy evil genius ; we will meet again at Phil- ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 303 ippi." At Philippi, in Thrace, the hostile armies met (42 B.C.). In two successive engagements the new levies of the liberators were cut to pieces, and both Brutus and Cassius, believing the cause of the republic forever lost, committed suicide. It was, indeed, the last effort of the republic. The history of the events tha.t lie between the action at Philippi and the establishment of the empire is simply a record of the struggles among the triumvirs for the possession of the prize of supreme power. After various redistributions' of provinces, Lepidus was at length expelled from the triumvirate, and then again the Roman world, as in the times of Csesar and Pompey, was in the hands of two masters — Antony in the East, and Octavius in the West. Antony and Cleopatra. — After the battle of Philippi, Antony went into Asia for the purpose of settling the affairs of the prov- inces and vassal states there. He summoned Cleopatra, the fair queen of Egypt, to meet him at Tarsus, in Cilicia, there to give account to him for the aid she had rendered the liberators. She obeyed the summons, relying upon the power of her charms to appease the anger of the triumvir. She ascended the Cydnus in a gilded barge, with oars of silver, and sails of purple silk. Be- neath awnings wrought of the richest manufactures of the East, the beautiful queen, attired to personate Venus, reclined amidst lovely attendants dressed to represent cupids and nereids. An- tony was completely fascinated, as had been the great Caesar before him, by the dazzling beauty of the "Serpent of the Nile." Enslaved by her enchantments, and charmed by her brilliant wit, in the pleasure of her company he forgot all else — ambition and honor and country. Once, indeed, Antony did rouse himself and break away from his enslavement to lead the Roman legions across the Euphrates against the Parthians. But the storms of approaching winter, and the incessant attacks of the Parthian cavalry, at length forced him to make a hurried and disastrous retreat. He hastened back to Egypt, and sought to forget his shame and disappointment amidst the revels of the Egyptian court. 304 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. The Battle of Actium (31 b.c). — Affairs could not long con- tinue in their present course. Antony had put away his faithful wife Octavia for the beautiful Cleopatra. It was whispered at Rome, and not without truth, that he proposed to make Alexan- dria the capital of the Roman world, and announce Csesarion, son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, as heir of the empire. All Rome was stirred. It was evident that a conflict was at hand in which the question for decision would be whether the West should rule the East, or the East rule the West. All eyes were instinctively turned to Octavius as the defender of Italy, and the supporter of the sovereignty of the Eternal City. Both parties made the most gigantic preparations. Octavius met the combined fleets of Antony and Cleopatra just off the promontory of Actium, on the Grecian coast. While the issue of the battle that there took place was yet undecided, Cleopatra turned her galley in flight. The Egyptian ships, to the number of fifty, followed her example. Antony, as soon as he perceived the withdrawal of Cleopatra, forgot all else, and followed in her track with a swift galley. Overtaking the fleeing queen, the infatuated man was received aboard her vessel, and became her partner in the disgraceful flight. The abandoned fleet and army surrendered to Octavius. The conqueror was now sole master of the civilized world. From this decisive battle (31 B.C.) are usually dated the end of the republic and the beginning of the empire. Some, however, make the es- tablishment of the empire date from the year 27 B.C., as it was not until then that Octavius was formally invested with imperial powers. Deaths of Antony and Cleopatra. — Octavius pursued Antony to Egypt, where the latter, deserted by his army, and informed by a messenger from the false queen that she was dead, committed suicide. Cleopatra then sought to enslave Octavius with her charms ; but, failing in this, and becoming convinced that he pro- posed to take her to Rome that she might there grace his triumph, she took her own life, being in the thirty-eighth year of her age. Tradition says that she effected her purpose by applying an asp to her arm. But it is really unknown in what way she killed herself. REIGN OF AUGUSTUS CMSAR. 305 CHAPTER XXIX. THE ROMAN EMPIRE. (From 31 B.C. to a.d. 180.) Reign of Augustus Caesar (31 b.c. to a.d. 14). — The hun- dred years of strife which ended with the battle of Actium left the Roman republic, exhausted and helpless, in the hands of one wise enough and strong enough to remould its crumbling frag- ments in such a manner that the state, which seemed ready to fall to pieces, might prolong its existence for another five hundred years. It was a great work thus to create anew, as it were, out of anarchy and chaos, a political fabric that should exhibit such elements of perpetuity and strength. " The establishment of the Roman empire," says Merivale, "was, after all, the greatest politi- cal work that any human being ever wrought. The achievements of Alexander, of Caesar, of Charlemagne, of Napoleon, are not to be compared with it for a moment." The government which Octavius established was a monarchy in fact, but a republic in form. Mindful of the fate of Julius Caesar, who fell because he gave the lovers Of the republic reason to think that he coveted the title of king, Octavius carefully veiled his really absolute sovereignty under the forms of the old repub- lican state. The Senate still existed ; but so completely subjected were its members to the influence of the conqueror that the only function it really exercised was the conferring of honors and titles and abject flatteries upon its master. All the republican officials remained ; but Octavius absorbed and exercised their chief powers and functions. He had the powers of consul, tribune, censor, and Pontifex Maximus. All the republican magistrates — the consuls, the tribunes, the praetors — were elected as usual ; but they were simply the nominees and creatures of the emperor. They were 306 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. the effigies and figure-heads to delude the people into believing that the republic still existed. Never did a people seem more content with the shadow after the loss of the substance. The Sen- ate, acting under the inspiration of Octavius, withheld from him the title of king, which ever since the ex- pulsion of the Tarquins, five centuries before this time, had been intolerable to the peo- ple ; but they conferred upon him the titles of Imperator and Augustus, the latter hav- ing been hitherto sacred to the gods. The sixth month of the Roman year was called Au- gustus (whence our August) in his honor, an act in imi- tation of that by which the preceding month had been given the name of Julius in honor of Julius Caesar. The domains over which Augustus held sway were im- perial in magnitude. They stretched from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, and upon the north were hemmed by Augustus the forests of Germany and the bleak steppes of Scythia, and were bordered on the south by REIGN OF AUGUSTUS CJESAR. 307 the sands of the African desert and the dreary wastes of Arabia, which seemed the boundaries set by nature to dominion in those directions. Within these Hmits were crowded more than 100,000,- 000 people, embracing every conceivable condition and variety in race and culture, from the rough barbarians of Gaul to the refined voluptuary of the East. Octavius was the first to moderate the ambition of the Romans, and to council them not to attempt to conquer any more of the world, but rather to devote their energies to the work of consoli- dating the domains already acquired. He saw the dangers that would attend any further extension of the boundaries of the state. The reign of Augustus lasted forty- four years, from 31 B.C. to a.d. 14. It embraced the most splendid period of the annals of Rome. Under the patronage of the emperor, and that of his favorite minister Maecenas, poets and writers flourished and made this the "golden age " of Latin literature. During this reign Virgil com- posed his immortal epic of the ^neid, and Horace his famous odes ; while Livy wrote his inimitable history, and Ovid his Meta- morphoses. Many who lamented the fall of the republic sought solace in the pursuit of letters ; and in this they were encouraged by Augustus, as it gave occupation to many restless spirits that would otherwise have been engaged in political intrigues against his government. Augustus was also a munificent patron of architecture and art. He adorned the capital with many splendid structures. Said he proudly, " I found Rome a city of brick ; I left it a city of mar- ble." The population of the city at this time was probably about one million. Although the government of Augustus was disturbed by some troubles upon the frontiers, still never before, perhaps, did the world enjoy so long a period of general rest from the preparation and turmoil of war. Three times during this auspicious reign the gates of the Temple of Janus at Rome, which were open in time of war and closed in time of peace, were shut. Only twice before during the entire history of the city had they been closed, so con- 308 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. stantly had the Roman people been engaged in war. It was in the midst of this happy reign, when profound peace prevailed throughout the civilized world, that Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea. The event was unheralded at Rome ; yet it was filled with profound significance, not only for the Roman empire, but for the world. The latter years of the life of Augustus were clouded both by domestic bereavement and national disaster. His beloved ne_phew Marcellus, and his two grandsons Caius and Lucius, whom he purposed making his heirs, were all removed by death ; and then, far away in the German forest, his general Varus, who had at- tempted to rule the freedom-loving Teutons as he had governed ihe abject Asiatics of the Eastern provinces, was surprised by the barbarians, led by their brave chief Hermann, — Arminius, as called by the Romans, — and his army destroyed almost to a man (a.d. 9) . Twenty thousand of the legionaries lay dead and unburied in the tangled woods and morasses of Germany. The victory of Arminius over the Roman legions was an event of the greatest significance in the history of European civilization. Germany was almost overrun by the Roman army. The Teutonic tribes were on the point of being completely subjugated and Romanized, as had been the Celts of Gaul before them. Had this occurred, the entire history of Europe would have been changed ; for the Germanic element is the one that has given shape and color to the important events of the last fifteen hundred years. Those barbarians, too, were our ancestors. Had Rome succeeded in exterminating or enslaving them, Britain, as Creasy says, would never have received the name of England, and the great English nation would never have had an existence. In the year a.d. 14, Augustus died, having reached the seventy- sixth year of his age. It was believed that his soul ascended visibly amidst the flames of the funeral pyre. By decree of the Senate divine worship was accorded to him, and temples were erected in his honor. One of the most important of the acts of Augustus, in its influ- REIGN OF TIBERIUS. 309 ence upon following events, was the formation of the Praetorian Guard, which was designed for a sort of body-guard to the em- peror. In the succeeding reign this body of soldiers, about ten thousand in number, was given a permanent camp alongside the city walls. It soon became a formidable power in the state, and made and unmade emperors at will. Reign of Tiberius (a.d. 14-37). — Tiberius succeeded to an unlimited sovereignty. The Senate conferred upon him all the titles that had been worn by Augustus. One of the first acts of Tiberius gave the last blow to the ancient republican institutions. He took away from the popular assembly the privilege of electing the consuls and praetors, and bestowed the same upon the Senate, which, however, must elect from candidates presented by the emperor. As the Senate was the creation of the emperor, who as censor made up the list of its members, he was now of course the source and fountain of all patronage. During the first years of his reign, Tiberius used his practically unrestrained authority with moderation and justice, but soon yielding to the promptings of a naturally cruel, suspicious, and jealous nature, he entered upon a course of the most high-handed tyranny. He enforced oppressively an old law, known as the law of majestas, which made it a capital offence for any one to speak a careless word, or even to entertain an unfriendly thought, respecting the emperor. " It was dangerous to speak, and equally dangerous to keep silent," says Leighton, " for silence even might be construed into discontent." Rewards were offered to informers, and hence sprang up a class of persons called " delators," who acted as spies upon society. Often false charges were made, to gratify personal enmity ; and many, espe- cially of the wealthy class, were accused and put to death that their property might be confiscated. Tiberius appointed, as his chief minister and as commander of the praetorians, one Sejanus, a man of the lowest and most corrupt life. This officer actually persuaded Tiberius to retire to the little island of Capreae, in the Bay of Naples, and leave to him the management of affairs at Rome. The emperor built several 310 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. villas in different parts of the beautiful islet, and, having gathered a band of congenial companions, passed in this pleasant retreat the later years of his reign. Both Tacitus' the historian and Suetonius the biographer tell many stories of the scandalous profligacy of the emperor's Hfe on the island ; but these tales, it should be added, are discredited by some. Meanwhile, Sejanus was ruling at Rome very much according to his own will. No man's life was safe. He even grew so bold as to plan the assassination of the emperor himself. His designs, however, became known to Tiberius ; and the infamous and dis- loyal minister was arrested and put to death. After the execution of his minister, Tiberius ruled more des- potically than ever before. Multitudes sought refuge from his tyranny in suicide. Death at last relieved the world of the mon- ster. His end was probably hastened by his attendants, who are believed to have smothered him in his bed, as he lay dying. It was in the midst of the reign of Tiberius that, in a remote province of the Roman empire, the Saviour was crucified. Ani- mated by an unparalleled missionary spirit. His followers traversed the length and breadth of the empire, preaching everywhere the " glad tidings." Men's loss of faith in the gods of the old mytholo- gies, the softening and liberalizing influence of Greek culture, the unification of the whole civilized world under a single govern- ment, the widespread suffering and the inexpressible weariness of the oppressed and servile classes, — all these things had prepared the soil for the seed of the new doctrines. In less than three centuries the Pagan empire had become Christian not only in name, but also very largely in fact. This conversion of Rome is one of the most important events in all history. A new element is here introduced into civilization, an element which we shall find giving color and character to very much of the story of the eighteen centuries that we have yet to study. Reign of Caligula (a.d. 37-41). — Caius Caesar, better known as Caligula, was only twenty-five years of age when the death of Tiberius called him to the throne. His career was very similar to REIGN OF CLAUDIUS, 311 that of Tiberius. After a few months spent in arduous apphca- tion to the affairs of the empire, during which time his many acts of kindness and piety won for him the affections of all classes, the mind of the young emperor became unsettled, and he began to indulge in all sorts of insanities. The cruel sports of the amphi- theatre possessed for him a strange fascination. When animals failed, he ordered spectators to be seized indiscriminately, and thrown to the beasts. He entered the lists himself, and fought as a gladiator upon the arena. In a sanguinary mood, he wished that " the people of Rome had but one neck." As an insult to his nobles, he gave out that he proposed to make his favorite horse, Incitatus, consul. He declared himself divine, and removing the heads of Jupiter's statues, put on his own. After four years the insane career of Caligula was brought to a close by some of the officers of the praetorian guard, whom he had wantonly insulted. Reign of Claudius (a.d. 41-54). — The reign of Claudius, Caligula's successor, was signalized by the conquest of Britain. Nearly a century had now passed since the invasion of the island by Juhus Caesar, who, as has been seen (see p. 292), simply made a reconnoissance of the island and then withdrew. Claudius conquered all the southern portion of the island, and founded many colonies, which in time became important centres of Roman trade and culture. The leader of the Britons was Caractacus. He was taken captive and carried to Rome. Gazing in astonish- ment upon the magnificence of the imperial city, he exclaimed, '' How can a people possessed of such splendor at home envy Caractacus his humble cottage in Britain? " Claudius distinguished his reign by the execution of many im- portant works. At the mouth of the Tiber he constructed a magnificent harbor, called the Portus Romanus. The Claudian Aqueduct, which he completed, was a stupendous work, bringing water to the city from a distance of forty-five miles. The dehght of the people in gladiatorial shows had at this time become almost an insane frenzy. Claudius determined to give an 312 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. entertainment that should render insignificant all similar efforts. Upon a large lake, whose sloping bank afforded seats for the vast multitudes of spectators, he exhibited a naval battle, in which two opposing fleets, bearing nineteen thousand gladiators, fought as though in real battle, till the water was filled with thousands of bodies, and covered with the fragments of the broken ships. Throughout his life Claudius was ruled by intriguing favorites and unworthy wives. For his fourth wife Claudius married the " wicked Agrippina," who secured his death by means of a dish of poisoned mushrooms, in order to make place for the succes- sion of her son Nero. Reign of Nero (a.d. 54-68). — Nero was fortunate in having for his preceptor the great philosopher and moralist Seneca ; but never was teacher more unfortunate in his pupil. For five years Nero ruled with moderation and equity. He then broke away from the guidance of his tutor Seneca, and entered upon a career filled with crimes of almost incredible enormity. The dagger and poison — the latter a means of murder the use of which at Rome had become a " fine art," and was in the hands of those who made it a regular profession — were employed almost un- ceasingly, to remove persons that had incurred his hatred, or who possessed wealth that he coveted. It was in the tenth year of his reign that the so-called Great Fire laid more than half of Rome in ashes. It was rumored that Nero had ordered the conflagration to be lighted, and that from the roof of his palace he had enjoyed the spectacle, and amused himself by singing a poem which he had written, entitled the " Sack of Troy." Nero did everything in his power to discredit the rumor. To turn attention from himself, he accused the Christians of having conspired to destroy the city, in order to help out their prophecies. The doctrine which was taught by some of the new sect respect- ing the second coming of Christ, and the destruction of the world by fire, lent color to the charge. The persecution that followed was one of the most cruel recorded in the history of the Church. REIGN OF NERO. 313 Many victims were covered with pitch and burned at night, to serve as torches in the imperial gardens. Tradition preserves the names of the Apostles Peter and Paul as victims of this Neronian persecution. As to Rome, the conflagration was a blessing in disguise. The city rose from its ashes as quickly as Athens from her ruins at the close of the Persian wars. The new buildings were made fire- proof : and the narrow, crooked streets reappeared as broad and beautiful avenues. A considerable portion of the burnt region was appropriated by Nero for the buildings and grounds of an immense palace, called the "Golden House." It covered so much space that the people "maliciously hinted" that Nero had fired the old city, in order to make room for it. The emperor secured money for his enormous expenditures by new extortions, murders, and confiscations. No one of wealth knew but that his turn might come next. A conspiracy was formed among the nobles to reheve the state of the monster. The plot was discovered, and again " the city was filled with funerals." Lucan the poet, and Seneca, the old preceptor of Nero, both fell victims to the tyrant's rage. Nero now made a tour through the East, and there plunged deeper and deeper into every shame, sensuality, and crime. The tyranny and the disgrace were no longer endurable. Almost at the same moment the legions in several of the provinces revolted. The Senate decreed that Nero was a public enemy, and condemned him to a disgraceful death by scourging, to avoid which he in- structed a slave how to give him a fatal thrust. His last words were, " What a loss my death will be to art ! " Nero was the sixth and last of the Julian fine. The family of the Great Caesar was now extinct ; but the name remained, and was adopted by all the succeeding emperors. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius (a.d. 68-69). — These three names are usually grouped together, as their reigns were all short and uneventful. The succession, upon the death of Nero and the extinction in him of the Julian line, was in dispute, and the legions 314 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. in different quarters supported the claims of their favorite leaders. One after another the three aspirants named were killed in bloody struggles for the imperial purple. The last, Vitellius, was hurled from the throne by the soldiers of Flavius Vespasian, the old and beloved commander of the legions in Palestine, which were at this time engaged in a war with the Jews. Reign of Vespasian (a.d. 69-79). — The accession of Flavius Vespasian marks the beginning of a period, embracing three reigns, known as the Flavian Age (a.d. 69-96). Vespasian's reign was signahzed both by important military achievements abroad and by stupendous public works undertaken at Rome. After one of the most harassing sieges recorded in history, Jerusalem was taken by Titus, son of Vespasian. The Temple was destroyed, and more than a million of Jews that were crowded in the city are believed to have perished. Great multitudes suffered death by crucifixion. The miserable remnants of the nation were scattered everywhere over the world. Josephus, the great historian, accompanied the con- queror to Rome. In imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, Titus robbed the Temple of its sacred utensils, and bore them away as trophies. Upon the triumphal arch at Rome that bears his name may be seen at the present day the sculptured representation of the golden candlestick, which was one of the memorials of the war. In the opposite corner of the empire a dangerous revolt of the Gauls was suppressed, and in the island of Britain the Roman commander Agricola subdued or crowded back the native tribes until he had extended the frontiers of the empire into what is now COIN OF VESPASIAN. REIGN OF VESPASIAN. 315 Scotland. Then, as a protection against the incursions of the Caledonians, the ancestors of the Scottish Highlanders, he con- structed a line of fortresses from the Frith of Forth to the Frith of Clyde. Vespasian rebuilt the Capitoline temple, which had been burned during the struggle between his soldiers and the adherents of Vitellius ; he constructed a new forum which bore his own name ; and also began the erection of the celebrated Flavian amphi- theatre, which was completed by his successor. After a most prosperous reign of ten years, Vespasian died a.d. 79, the first emperor after Augustus that did not meet with a violent death. TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS: Showing the Seven-branched Candlestick and other Trophies from the Temple at Jerusalem. At the last moment he requested his attendants to raise him upon his feet that he might '' die standing," as befitted a Roman emperor. Reign of Titus (a.d. 79-81). — In a short reign of two years 316 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Titus won the title, the " Delight of Mankind." He was un- wearied in acts of benevolence and in bestowal of favors. Hav- ing let a day slip by without some act of kindness performed, he is said to have exclaimed reproachfully, " I have lost a day." Titus completed and dedicated the great Flavian amphitheatre begun by his father, Vespasian. This vast structure, which accom- modated more than eighty thousand spectators, is better known as the Colosseum — a name given it either because of its gigantic proportions, or on account of a colossal statue of Nero which happened to stand near it. STREET IN POMPEII. (A Reconstruction.) The reign of Titus, though so short, was signaHzed by two great disasters. The first was a conflagration at Rome, which was almost as calamitous as the Great Fire in the reign of Nero. The second was the destruction; by an eruption of Vesuvius, of the Campanian cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities were buried D OMIT I AN. 317 beneath showers of cinders, ashes, and streams of volcanic mud. PHny the elder, the great naturalist, venturing too near the moun- tain to investigate the phenomenon, lost his life.^ Domitian — Last of the Twelve Caesars (a.d. 81-96). — Domi- tian, the brother of Titus, was the last of the line of emperors known as "the Twelve Caesars." The title, however, was assumed by, and is applied to, all succeeding emperors ; the sole reason that the first twelve princes are grouped together is because the Roman biographer Suetonius completed the lives of that number only. Domitian's reign was an exact contrast to that of his brother Titus. It was one succession of extravagances, tyrannies, confis- cations, and murders. Under this emperor took place what is known in Church history as " the second persecution of the Chris- tians." This class, as well as the Jews, were the special objects of Domitian's hatred, because they refused to worship the statues of himself which he had set up (see p. 322). The last of the Twelve Caesars perished in his own palace, and by the hands of members of his own household. The Senate ordered his infamous name to be erased from the public monu- ments, and to be blotted from the records of the Roman state. The Five Good Emperors: Reign of Nerva (a.d. 96-98). — The five emperors — Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two An- tonines — that succeeded Domitian were elected by the Senate, which during this period assumed something of its former weight and influence in the affairs of the empire. The wise and benefi- cent administration of the government by these rulers secured for them the enviable distinction of being called " the five good emperors." Nerva died after a short reign of sixteen months, 1 In the year 1713, sixteen centuries after the destruction of the cities, the ruins were disoovered by some persons engaged in digging a well, and since then extensive excavations have been made, which have uncovered a large part of Pompeii, and revealed to us the streets, homes, theatres, baths, shops, temples, and various monuments of the ancient city — all of which present to us a very vivid picture of Roman life during the imperial period, eighteen hundred years ago. 318 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. and the sceptre passed into the stronger hands of the able com- mander Trajan, whom Nerva had previously made his associate in the government. Keign of Trajan (a.d. 98-117). — Trajan was a native of Spain, and a soldier by profession and talent. His ambition to achieve military renown led him to undertake distant and impor- tant conquests. It was the policy of Augustus — a policy adopted by most of his suc- cessors — to make the Dan- ube in Europe and the Euphrates in Asia the hmits of the Roman empire in those respective quarters. But Trajan determined to push the frontiers of his do- minions beyond both these rivers, scorning to permit Nature by these barriers to mark out the confines of Roman sovereignty. He crossed the Danube by means of a bridge, the foundations ' of which may still be seen, and subjugated the bold and warlike Dacian tribes lying behind that stream — tribes that had often threatened the peace of the empire." After cele- brating his victories in a magnificent triumph at Rome, Trajan turned to the East, led his legions across the Euphrates, reduced Armenia, and wrested from the Parthians most of the territory which anciently formed TRAuAiN 25 THE ROMAN EMPIRE UNDER TRAJAN A.D.II7. / ~~~ — 15 REIGN OF TRAJAN. 319 the heart of the Assyrian monarchy. To Trajan belongs the distinction of extending the boundaries of the empire to the most distant points to which Roman ambition and prowess were ever able to push them. But Trajan was something besides a soldier. He had a taste for literature : Juvenal, Plutarch, and the younger Pliny wrote under his patronage ; and, moreover, as is true of almost all great conquerors, he had a perfect passion for building. Among the great works with which he embellished the capital was the Trajan Forum. Here he erected the celebrated marble shaft known as Trajan's column. It is one hundred and forty-seven BESIEGING A DACIAN CITY. (From Trajan's Column.) feet high, and is wound from base to summit by a spiral band of sculptures, containing more than twenty-five thousand human figures. The column is nearly as perfect to-day as when reared eighteen centuries ago. It was intended to commemorate the Dacian conquests of Trajan ; and its pictured sides are the best, and almost the only, record we now possess of those wars. Respecting the rapid spread of Christianity at this time, the character of the early professors of the new faith, and the light in which they were viewed by the rulers of the Roman world, we have very important evidence in a certain letter written by Phny the Younger to the emperor in regard to the Christians of Pontus, 320 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. in Asia Minor, of which remote province PHny was governor. PHny speaks of the new creed as a " contagious superstition, that had seized not cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the open country." Yet he could find no fault in the converts to the new doctrines. Notwithstanding this, however, because the Christians steadily refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, he ordered many to be put to death for their " inflexible obstinacy." Trajan died a.d. 117, after a reign of nineteen years, one of the most prosperous and fortunate that had yet befallen the lot of the Roman people. Reign of Hadrian (a.d. i 17-138). — Hadrian, a kinsman of Trajan, succeeded him in the imperial office. He possessed great ability, and displayed admirable moderation and prudence in the administration of the government. He gave up the territory con- quered by Trajan in the East, and made the Euphrates once more the boundary of the empire in that quarter. He also broke down the bridge that Trajan had built over the Danube, and made that stream the real frontier line, notwithstanding the Roman garrisons were still maintained in Dacia. Hadrian saw plainly that Rome could not safely extend any more widely the frontiers of the empire. Indeed, so active and threatening were the enemies of the empire in the East, and so daring and numerous had now become its barbarian assailants of the North, that there was rea- son for the greatest anxiety lest they should break through even the old and strong lines of the Danube and the Euphrates, and pour their devastating hordes over the provinces. More than fifteen years of his reign were spent by Hadrian in making tours of inspection through all the different provinces of the empire. He visited Britain, and secured the Roman posses- sions there against the Picts and Scots by erecting a continuous wall across the island. Next he journeyed through Gaul and Spain, and then visited in different tours all the remaining coun- tries bordering upon the Mediterranean. He ascended the Nile, and, traveller-Hke, carded his name upon the vocal Memnon. The cities which he visited he decorated with temples, theatres, and other monuments. THE ANTONINES. 321 In the year 131, the Jews in Palestine, who h^ in a measure recovered from the blow Titus had given their nation, broke out in desperate revolt, because of the planting of a Roman colony upon the almost desolate site of Jerusalem, and the placing of the statue of Jupiter in the Holy Temple. More than half a million of Jews perished in the useless struggle, and the survivors were driven into exile — the last dispersion of the race. The latter years of his reign Hadrian passed at Rome. It was here that this princely builder erected his most splendid structures. Among these was the Mole, or Mausoleum, of Hadrian, an immense structure surmounted by a gilded dome, erected on the banks of the Tiber, and designed as a tomb for himself. The Antonines (a.d. 138-180). — Aurehus Antoninus, surnamed Pius, the adopted son of Hadrian, and his successor, gave the Roman empire an administration singularly pure and parental. Of him it has been said that " he was the first, and, saving his colleague and successor Aurelius, the only one of the emperors who devoted himself io the task of government with a single view to the happiness of his people." Throughout his long reign of twenty-three years, the empire was in a state of profound peace. The attention of the historian is attracted by no striking events, which, as many have not failed to observe, illustrates admirably the oft-repeated maxim, "Happy is that people whose annals are brief." Antoninus, early in his reign, united with himself in the govern- ment his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, and upon the death of the former (a.d. 161) the latter succeeded quietly to his place and work. His studious habits won for him the title of " Philosopher." He belonged to the school of the Stoics, and was a most thoughtful writer. His Meditations breathe the tenderest sentiments of devo- tion and benevolence, and make the nearest approach to the spirit of Christianity of all the writings of Pagan antiquity. He estab- lished an Institution, or Home, for orphan girls ; and, finding the poorer classes throughout Italy burdened by their taxes and greatly in arrears in paying them, he caused all the tax-claims to be heaped in the Forum and burned. 322 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. The tastes aiM sympathies of Aurehus would have led him to choose a life passed in retirement and study at the capital ; but hostile movements of the Parthians, and especially invasions of the barbarians along the Rhenish and Danubian frontiers, called him from his books, and forced him to spend most of the latter years of his reign in the camp. The Parthians, who had violated their treaty with Rome, were chastised by the lieutenants of the em- peror, and Mesopotamia again fell under Roman authority. This war drew after it a series of terrible calamities. The returning soldiers brought with them the Asiatic plague, which swept off vast numbers, especially in Italy, where entire cities and districts were depopulated. In the general distress and panic, the superstitious people were led to believe that it was the new sect of Christians that had called down upon the nation the anger of the gods. Aurelius permitted a fearful persecution to be instituted against them, during which the famous Christian fathers and bishops, Justin Martyr and Polycarp, suffered death. It should be noted that the persecution of the Christians under the Pagan emperors, sprung from political rather than religious mo- tives, and that this is why we find the names of the best emperors, as well as those of the worst, in the list of persecutors. It was believed that the welfare of the state was bound up with the care- ful performance of the rites of the national worship ; and hence, while the Roman rulers were usually very tolerant, allowing all forms of worship among their subjects, still they required that men of every faith should at least recognize the Roman gods, and burn incense before their statues. This the Christians steadily refused to do. Their neglect of the service of the temple, it was believed, angered the gods, and endangered the safety of the state, bringing upon it drought, pestilence, and every disaster. This was the main reason of their persecution by the Pagan emperors. But pestilence and persecution were both forgotten amidst the imperative calls for immediate help that now came from the North. The barbarians were pushing in the Roman outposts, and pouring impetuously over the frontiers. To the panic of the plague was ROMAN EMPERORS. 323 added this new terror. Aurelius placed himself at the head of his legions, and hurried beyond the Alps. For many years, amidst the snows of winter and the heats of summer, he strove to beat back the assailants of the empire. The efforts of the devoted Aurelius checked the inroads of the barbarians ; but he could not subdue them, so weakened was the empire by the ravages of the pestilence, and so exhausted was the treasury from the heavy and constant drains upon it. At last his weak body gave way beneath the hardships of his numer- ous campaigns, and he died in his camp at Vindobona (now Vienna), in the nineteenth year of his reign (a.d. i8o). The united voice of the Senate and people pronounced him a god, and divine worship was accorded to his statue. Never was Monarchy so justified of her children as in the lives and works of the Antonines. As Merivale, in dwelling upon their virtues, very justly remarks, " the blameless career of these illustrious princes has furnished the best excuse for Csesarism in all after-ages." ROMAN EMPERORS FROM AUGUSTUS TO MARCUS AURELIUS. (From 31 B.C. to A.D. 180.) Augustus reigns . 31 B.C. to a.d. 14 Tiberius A.D. 14-37 Caligula 37-41 Claudius 41-54 Nero 54-68 Galba : 68-69 Otho 69 Vitellius 69 Vespasian 69-79 Titus A.D. 79-81 Domitian 81-96 Nerva 96^98 Trajan 98-117 Hadrian 1 17-138 Antoninus Pius 1 38-1 61 C Marcus Aurelius . . . . 161-180 s Verus associated with Au- ^ relius 161-169 The first eleven, in connection with Julius Caesar, are called the Twelve Caesars. The last five (excluding Verus) are known as the Five Good Emperors. 324 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. CHAPTER XXX. DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST; BEGINNING OF THE GREAT GERMAN MIGRATION. (a.d. 180-476.) Reign of Commodus (a.d. 180-192) . — Under the wise and able administration of " the five good emperors " — Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines — the Roman empire reached its cuhiiination in power and prosperity ; and now, under the en- feebhng influences of vice and corruption within, and the heavy blows of the barbarians without, it begins to decline rapidly to its fall. Commodus, son of Mar- cus Aurelius, and the last of the Antonines, was a most unworthy successor of his illustrious father. For three years, however, surrounded by the able generals and wise counsel- lors that the prudent ad- ministration of the preced- ing emperors had drawn to the head of affairs, Commodus ruled with fairness and lenity, when an unsuccessful conspiracy against his life seemed suddenly to kindle all the slumbering passions of a Nero. He secured the favor of the rabble with the shows of the amphitheatre, and purchased the support of the praetorians with bribes and flat- COMMODUS (as Hercules). " THE BARRACK EMPERORSr 325 teries. Thus he was enabled for ten years to retain the throne, while perpetrating all manner of cruelties, and staining the impe- rial purple with the most detestable debaucheries and crimes. Commodus had a passion for gladiatorial combats, and attired in a lion's skin, and armed with the club of Hercules, he valiantly set upon and slew antagonists arrayed to represent mythological monsters, and armed with great sponges for rocks. The Senate, so obsequiously servile had that body become, conferred upon him the title of the Roman Hercules, and also voted him the addi- tional surnames of Pius and Felix, and even proposed to change the name of Rome and call it Colonia Commodiana. The empire was finally relieved of the insane tyrant by some members of the royal household, who anticipated his designs against themselves by putting him to death. "The Barrack Emperors." — For nearly a century after the death of Commodus (from a.d. 192 to 284), the emperors were elected by the army, and hence the rulers for this period have been called "the Barrack Emperors." The character of the pe- riod is revealed by the fact that of the twenty-five emperors who mounted the throne during this time all except four came to their deaths by violence. " Civil war, pestilence, bankruptcy, were all brooding over the empire. The soldiers had forgotten how to fight, the rulers how to govern." On every side the barbarians were breaking into the empire to rob, to murder, and to burn. The Public Sale of the Empire (a.d. 193). — The beginning of these troublous times was marked by a shameful proceeding on the part of the praetorians. Upon the death of Commodus, Perti- nax, a distinguished senator, was placed on the throne ; but his efforts to enforce discipline among the praetorians aroused their anger, and he was slain by them after a short reign of only three months. These soldiers then gave out notice that they would sell the empire to the highest bidder. It was, accordingly, set up for sale at the praetorian camp, and struck off to Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator, who gave ^1000 to each of the 12,000 soldiers at this time composing the guard. So the price of the empire was about ^12,000,000. 326 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. But these turbulent and insolent soldiers at the capital of the empire were not to have things entirely their own way. As soon as the news of the disgraceful transaction reached the legions on the frontiers, they rose as a single man in indignant revolt. Each of the three armies that held the Euphrates, the Rhine, and the Danube, proclaimed its favorite commander emperor. The leader of the Danubian troops was Septimius Severus, a man of great energy and force of character. He knew that there were other competitors for the throne, and that the prize would be his who first seized it. Instantly he set his veterans in motion and was soon at Rome. The prsetorians were no match for the trained legionaries of the frontiers, and did not even attempt to defend their emperor, who was taken prisoner and put to death after a reign of sixty-five days. Reign of Septimius Severus (a.d. 193-2 n). — One of the first acts of Severus was to organize a new body-guard of 50,000 legionaries, to take the place of the unworthy praetorians, whom, as a punishment for the insult they had offered to the Roman state, he disbanded, and banished from the capital, and forbade to approach within a hundred miles of its walls. He next crushed his two rival competitors, and was then undisputed master of the empire. He put to death forty senators for having favored his late rivals, and completely destroyed the power of their body. Committing to the prefect of the new praetorian guard the man- agement of affairs at the capital, Severus passed the greater part of his long and prosperous reign upon the frontiers. At one time he was chastising the Parthians beyond the Euphrates, and at another, pushing back the Caledonian tribes from the Hadrian wall in the opposite corner of his dominions. Finally, in Britain, in his camp at York, death overtook him. Reign of Caracalla (a.d. 21 1-2 17). — Severus conferred the empire upon his two sons, Caracalla and Geta. Caracalla mur- dered his brother, and then ordered Papinian, the celebrated jurist, to make a public argument in vindication of the fratricide. When that great lawyer refused, saying that '' it was easier to com- REIGN OF CARACALLA. 327 mit such a crime than to justify it/' he put him to death. Thou- sands fell victims to his senseless rage. Driven by remorse and fear, he fled from the capital, and wandered about the most dis- tant provinces. At Alexandria, on account of some uncomplimen- tary remarks by the citizens upon his appearance, he ordered a general massacre. Finally, after a reign of six years, the monster was slain in a remote corner of Syria. Caracalla's sole political act of real importance was the bestowal of citizenship upon all the free inhabitants of the empire ; and this he did, not to give them a just privilege, but that he might collect from them cer- tain special taxes which only Roman citizens had to pay. B e f o r e the reign of Caracalla it was only particular classes of sub- jects, or the in- habitants of some particular city or province, that, as a mark of special favor, had, from time to time, been admitted to the rights of citizenship (see p. 280). By this wholesale act of Caracalla, the entire population of the empire was made Roman, at least in name and nominal privilege. " The city had become the world, or, viewed from the other side, the world had become the city" (Merivale). Reign of Alexander Severus (a.d. 222-235). — Severus restored the virtues of the Age of the Antonines. His administration was pure and energetic; but he strove in vain to resist the corrupt and downward tendencies of the times. He was assassinated. CARACALLA. 328 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. after a reign of fourteen years, by his seditious soldiers, who were angered by his efforts to reduce them to discipHne. They invested with the imperial purple an obscure officer named Maximin, a Thracian peasant, whose sole recommendation for this dignity was his gigantic stature and his great strength of limbs. Rome had now sunk to the lowest possible degradation. We may pass rapidly over the next fifty years of the empire. The Thirty Tyrants, (a.d. 251-268).- — Maximin was followed swiftly by Gordian, Philip, and Decius, and then came what is -' -',^V ,_ u- * TRIUMPH OF SAPOR OVER VALERIAN. called the "Age of the Thirty Tyrants." The imperial sceptre being held by weak emperors, there sprang up in every part of the empire, competitors for the throne — several rivals frequently appearing in the field at the same time. The barbarians pressed upon all the frontiers, and thrust themselves into all the provinces. The empire seemed on the point of falhng to pieces.^ But a fortunate succession of five good emperors — Claudius, Aurelian, 1 It was during this period that the Emperor Valerian (a.d. 253-260), in a battle with the Persians before Edessa, in Mesopotamia, was defeated and taken prisoner by Sapor, the Persian king. A large rock tablet (see cut above), still to be seen near the Persian town of Shiraz, is believed to com- memorate the triumph of Sapor over the unfortunate emperor. THE FALL OF PALMYRA. 329 Tacitus, Probus, and Cams (a.d. 268-284) — restored for a time the ancient boundaries, and again forced together into some sort of union the fragments of the shattered state. The Fall of Palmyra. — The most noted of the usurpers of authority in the provinces during the period of anarchy of which we have spoken, was Odenatus, Prince of Palmyra, a city occupy- ing an oasis in the midst of the Syrian Desert, midway between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates. In gratitude for the aid he had rendered the Romans against the Parthians, the Senate had bestowed upon him titles and honors. When the empire began to show signs of weakness and approaching dissolution, Odenatus conceived the ambitious project of erecting upon its ruins in the East a great Palmyrian kingdom. Upon his death, his wife, Zenobia, succeeded to his authority and to his ambitions. This famous princess claimed descent from Cleopatra, and it is certain that in the charms of personal beauty she was the rival of the Egyptian queen. Boldly assuming the title of " Queen of the East," she bade defiance to the emperor of Rome. Aurelian marched against her, defeated her armies, and carried her a cap- tive to Italy (273 B.C.). After having been led in golden chains in the triumphal procession of Aurelian, the queen was given a beautiful villa in the vicinity of Tibur, where, surrounded by her children, she passed the remainder of her checkered hfe. The ruins of Palmyra are among the most interesting remains of Graeco-Roman civilization in the East. Reign of Diocletian (a.d. 284-305). — The reign of Diocletian marks an important era in Roman history. Up to this time the imperial government had been more or less carefully concealed under the forms and names of the old republic. The government now became an unveiled and absolute monarchy. Diocletian's reforms, though radical, were salutary, and infused such fresh vitality into the frame of the dying state as to give it a new lease of life for another term of nearly two hundred years. He determined to divide the numerous and increasing cares of the distracted empire, so that it might be ruled from two centres — 330 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. one in the East and the other in the West. In pursuance of this plan, he chose as a colleague a companion soldier, Maximian, upon whom he conferred the title of Augustus. After a few years, finding the cares of the co-sovereignty still too heavy, each sovereign asso- ciated with himself an assistant, who took the title of Caesar, and was con- sidered the son and heir of the em- peror. There were thus two Augusti and two Caesars. Milan, in Italy, be- came the capital and residence of Maximian ; while Nicomedia, in Asia Minor, became the seat of the court of Diocletian. The Augusti took charge of the countries near their re- spective capitals, while the younger and more active Caesars were assigned the government of the more distant and turbulent provinces. The vigor- of the government in every quarter of the The authority of each of the rulers was DIOCLETIAN. ous administration empire was thus secured. supreme within the territory allotted him ; but all acknowledged Diocletian as " the father and head of the state." The most serious drawback to the system of government thus instituted was the heavy expense incident to the maintenance of four courts with their trains of officers and dependants. The taxes became unendurable, husbandry ceased, and large masses of the population were reduced almost to starvation. While the changes made in the government have rendered the name of Diocletian famous in the political history of the Roman state, the cruel persecutions which he ordered against the Chris- tians have made his name in an equal degree infamous in ecclesi- astical annals ; for it was during this reign that the tenth — the last and severest — of the persecutions of the Church took place. By an imperial decree the churches of the Christians were ordered REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN. 331 to be torn down, and they themselves^ were outlawed. For ten years the fugitives were hunted in forest and cave. The victims were burned, were cast to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre — were put to death by every torture and in every mode that ingen- ious cruelty could devise. But nothing could shake the constancy of their faith. They courted the death that secured them, as they firmly believed, immediate entrance upon an existence of unending happiness. The exhibition of de- votion and constancy shown by the martyrs won multitudes to the persecuted faith. It was during this and the vari- ous other persecutions that vexed , the Church in the second and ; third centuries that the Christians sought refuge in the Catacombs, those vast subterranean galleries and chambers under the city of Rome. Here the Christians lived and buried their dead, and on the walls of the chambers sketched rude symbols of their hope and faith. It was in the darkness of these subterranean abodes that Christian art had its beginnings. After a prosperous reign of twenty years, becoming weary of the cares of state, Diocletian abdicated the throne, and forced or induced his colleague Maximian also to lay down his authority on the same day. Galerius and Constantius were, by this act, advanced to the purple and made Augusti ; and two new associates were appointed as Caesars. Diocletian, having enjoyed the ex- treme satisfaction of seeing the imperial authority quietly and suc- cessfully transmitted by his system, without the dictation of the insolent praetorians or the interference of the turbulent legion- aries, now retired to his country-seat at Salona, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic, and there devoted himself to rural pursuits. It is related that, when Maximian wrote him urging him to en- CHRIST AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. (From the Catacombs.) 332 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. deavor, with him, to regain the power they had laid aside, he re- pUed : " Were you but to come to Salona and see the vegetables which I raise in my garden with my own hands, you would no longer talk to me of empire." Eeign of Constantine the Great (a.d. 306-337) ; the Empire becomes Christian. — Galerius and Constantius had reigned to- gether only one year, when the latter died at York, in Britain ; and his soldiers, disregarding the rule of succession as determined by the system of Diocletian, proclaimed his son Constantine em- peror. Six competitors for the throne arose in different quarters. For eighteen years Constantine fought to gain supremacy. At the end of that time every rival was crushed, and he was the sole ruler of the Roman world. Constantine was the first Christian emperor. He was con- verted to the new religion — such is the legend — by seeing in the heavens, during one of his campaigns against his rivals, a luminous cross with this inscription: "With this sign you will conquer." He made the cross the royal standard ; and the Roman legions now for the first time marched beneath the emblem of Christianity. By a decree issued from Milan a.d. 313, Christianity was made in effect the state rehgion ; but all other forms of worship were tolerated. With the view of harmonizing the different sects that had sprung up among the Christians, and to settle the controversy between the Arians and the Athanasians respecting the nature of Christ, — the former denied his equality with God the Father, — Constantine called the first QEcumenical, or General Council of the Church, at Nicaea, a town of Asia Minor, a.d. 325. Arianism was denounced, and a formula of Christian faith adopted, which is known as the Nicene Creed. After the recognition of Christianity, the most important act of Constantine was the selection of Byzantium, on the Bosporus, as the new capital of the empire. One reason which led the em- peror to choose this site in preference to Rome was the ungra- cious conduct towards him of the inhabitants of the latter city, because he had abandoned the worship of the old national deities. ? 4 CO., ART-PRmllMa W-RkS, tUfl-ALU, N.T, REIGN OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. ZZZ But there were political reasons for such a change. Through the Eastern conquests of Rome, the centre of the population, wealth, and culture of the empire had shifted eastward. The West — Gaul, Britain, Spain — was rude and barbarous ; the East — Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor — was the abode of ancient civihzations from which Rome was proud to trace her origin. Constantine was not the first to entertain the idea of seeking in the East a new centre for the Roman world. The Itahans were inflamed against the first Caesar by the report that he intended to restore Ilium, the cradle of the Roman race, and make that the capital of the empire. Constantine organized at Byzantium a new Senate, while that at Rome sank to the obscure position of the council of a provincial municipality. Multitudes eagerly thronged to the new capital, and almost in a night the little colony grew into an imperial city. In honor of the emperor its name was changed to Constantinople, the " City of Constantine." Hereafter the eyes of the world were directed towards the Bosporus instead of the Tiber. To aid in the administration of the government, Constantine laid out the empire into four great divisions, called prefectures (see map), which were subdivided into thirteen dioceses, and these again into one hundred and sixteen provinces. The character of Constantine has been greatly eulogized by Christian writers, while pagan historians very naturally painted it in dark colors. It is probable that he embraced Christianity, not entirely from conviction, but partly from political motives. As the historian Hodgkin puts it, '^ He was half, convinced of the truth of Christianity, and wholly convinced of the policy of em- bracing it." In any event, Constantine 's religion was a strange mixture of the old and the new faith : on his medals the Christian cross is held by the pagan deity. Victory. In his domestic rela- tions he was tyrannical and cruel. He died in the thirty-first year of his reign, leaving his kingdom to his three sons, Constans, Constantius, and Constantine. Reign of Julian the Apostate (a.d. T^di-T^d^) . — The parcel- 334 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. ling out of the empire by Constantine among his sons led to strife and wars, which, at the end of sixteen years, left Constan- tius master of the whole. He reigned as sole emperor for about eight years, engaged in ceaseless warfare with German tribes in the West and with the Persians ^ in the East. Constantius was fol- lowed by his cousin Julian, who was killed while in pursuit of the troops of Sapor, king of the Persians (a.d. 2>^'^^. Julian is called the Apostate because he abandoned Christianity and labored to restore the pagan faith. In his persecution of the Christians, however, he could not resort to the old means — " the sword, the fire, the lions ; " for, under the softening influ- ences of the very faith he sought to extirpate, the Roman world had already learned a gentleness and humanity that rendered impossible the renewal of the Neronian and Diocletian persecu- tions. Julian's weapons were sophistry and ridicule, in the use of which he was a master. To degrade the Christians, and place them at a disadvantage in controversy, he excluded them from the schools of logic and rhetoric. Furthermore, to cast discredit upon the predictions of the Scriptures, Julian determined to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, which the Christians contended could not be restored because of the prophecies against it. He actually began excavations, but his workmen were driven in great panic from the spot by terrific explosions and bursts of flame. The Christians regarded the occurrence as miraculous ; and Julian himself, it is certain, was so dismayed by it that he desisted from the undertaking.^ It was in vain that the apostate emperor labored to uproot the 1 The great Parthian empire, which had been such a formidable antago- nist of Rome, was, after an existence of five centuries, overthrown (a.d. 226) by a revolt of the Persians, and the New Persian, or Sassanian monarchy established. This empire lasted till the country was overrun by the Saracens in the seventh century A.D. 2 The explosions which so terrified the workmen of Julian are supposed to have been caused by accumulations of gases — similar to those that so fre- quently occasion accidents in mines — in the subterranean chambers of the Temple foundations. VALENTINIAN AND VALENS. 335 new faith ; for the purity of its teachings, the universal and eternal character of its moral precepts, had given it a name to live. Equally in vain were his efforts to restore the worship of the old Grecian and Roman divinities. Polytheism was a transitional form of religious belief which the world had now outgrown : Great Pan was dead. The disabilities under which Juhan had placed the Christians were removed by his successor Jovian (a.d. 363-4), and the Christian worship was re-established. GERMANS CROSSING THE RHINE. (Drawing by Alphonse de Neuville.) Valentinian and Valens. — Upon the death of Jovian, Valen- tinian, the commander of the imperial guard, was elected emperor by a council of the generals of the army and the ministers of the court. He appointed his brother Valens as his associate in office, and assigned to him the Eastern provinces, while reserving for him- self the Western. He set up his own court at Milan, while Jiis brother established his residence at Constantinople. The Movements of the Barbarians. — The reigns of Valen- tinian and Valens were signalized by threatening movements of 336 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. the barbarian tribes, that now, ahuost at the same moment, began to press with redoubled energy against all the barriers of the em- pire. The Alemanni (Germans) crossed the Rhine — sometimes swarming over the river on the winter's ice — and, before pursuit could be made, escaped with their booty into the depths of the German forests. The Saxons, pirates of the northern seas, who issued from the mouth of the Elbe, ravaged the coasts of Gaul and Britain, even pushing their light skiffs far up the rivers and creeks of those countries, and carrying spoils from the inland cities. In Britain, the Picts broke through the Wall of Antoninus, and wrested almost the entire island from the hands of the Romans. In Africa, the Moorish and other tribes, issuing from the ravines of the Atlas Mountains and swarming from the deserts of the south, threatened to obliterate the last trace of Roman civilization occupying the narrow belt of fertile territory skirting the sea. The barbarian tide of invasion seemed thus on the point of overwhelming the empire in the West ; but jfor twelve years Val- entinian defended with signal ability and energy, not only his own territories, but aided with arms and counsel his weaker brother Valens in the defence of his. Upon the death of Valentinian, his son Gratian succeeded to his authority (a.d. 375). The Goths cross the Danube. — The year following the death .of Valentinian, an event of the greatest importance occurred in the East. The Visigoths (Western Goths) dwelling north of the Lower Danube, who had often in hostile bands crossed that river to war against the Roman emperors, now appeared as suppliants in vast multitudes upon its banks. They said that a terrible race, whom they were powerless to withstand, had invaded their terri- tories, and spared neither their homes nor their lives. They begged permission of the Romans to cross the river and settle in Thrace, and promised, should this request be granted, ever to remain the grateful and firm allies of the Roman state. Valens consented to grant their petition on condition that they should surrender their arms, give up their children as hostages, and all be baptized in the Christian faith. Their terror and de- THE GOTHS CROSS THE DANUBE. 337 spair led them to assent to these conditions. So the entire nation, numbering one milUon souls, — counting men, women, and chil- dren, — were allowed to cross the river. Several days and nights were consumed in the transport of the vast multitudes. The writers of the times liken the passage to that of the Hellespont by the hosts of Xerxes. The enemy that had so terrified the Goths were the Huns, a monstrous race of fierce nomadic horsemen, that two centuries and more before the Christian era were roving the deserts north of the Great Wall of China (see p. 13). Migrating from that region, they moved slowly to the west, across the great plains of Central Asia, and, after wandering several centuries, appeared in Europe. They belonged to a different race (the Turanian) from all the other European tribes with which we have been so far concerned. Their features were hideous, their noses being flattened, and their cheeks gashed, to render their appearance more frightful, as well as to prevent the growth of a beard. Even the barbarous Goths called them "barbarians." Scarcely had the fugitive Visigoths been received within the limits of the empire before a large company of their kinsmen, the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths), also driven from their homes by the same terrible Huns, crowded to the banks of the Danube, and pleaded that they might be allowed, as their countrymen had been, to place the river between themselves and their dreaded enemies. But Valens, becoming alarmed at the presence of so many barbarians within his dominions, refused their request ; whereupon they, dreading the fierce and implacable foe behind more than the wrath of the Roman emperor in front, crossed the river with arms in their hands. At this monient the Visigoths, rising in revolt, joined their kinsmen that were just now forcing the passage of the Danube, and began to ravage the Danubian provinces. Valens despatched swift messengers to Gratian in the West, asking for assistance against the foe he had so imprudently admitted within the limits of the empire. Theodosius the Great (a.d. 379-395). — Gratian was hurrying 338 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE, to the help of his colleague Valens, when news of his defeat and death at the hands of the barbarians was brought to him, and he at once appointed as his associate Theodosius, known afterwards as the Great, and entrusted him with the government of the Eastern provinces. Theodosius, by wise and vigorous measures, quickly reduced the Goths to submission. Vast multitudes of the Visigoths were settled upon the waste lands of Thrace, while the Ostrogoths were scattered in various colonies' in different regions of Asia Minor. The Goths became allies of the Emperor of the East, and more than 40,000 of these warlike barbarians, who were destined to be the subverters of the empire, were enlisted in the imperial legions. While Theodosius was thus composing the East, the West, through the jealous rivalries of different competitors for the con- trol of the government, had fallen into great disorder. Theodosius twice interposed to right affairs, and then took the government into his own hands. For four months he ruled as sole monarch of the empire. Final Division of the Empire (a.d. 395). — The Roman world was now united for the last time under a single master. Just before his death, Theodosius divided the empire between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, assigning the former, who was only eighteen years of age, the government of the East, and giving the latter, a mere child of eleven, the sovereignty of the West. This was the final partition of the Roman empire — the issue of that growing tendency, which we have observed in its immoderately ex- tended dominions, to break apart. The separate histories of the East and the West now begin. The Eastern Empire. — The story of the fortunes of the Em- pire in the East need not detain us long at this point of our history. This monarchy lasted over a thousand years — from the accession to power of Arcadius, a.d. 395, to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, a.d. 1453. It will thus be seen that the greater part of its history belongs to the mediaeval period. Up to the time of the overthrow of the Empire in the West, the sovereigns of the East were engaged almost incessantly in sup- FIRST INVASION OF ITAIY. 339 pressing uprisings of their Gothic aUies or mercenaries, or in re- pelHng invasions of the Huns and the Vandals. Frequently during this period, in order to save their own territories, the Eastern em- perors, by dishonorable inducements, persuaded the barbarians to direct their ravaging expeditions against the provinces of the West. Last Days of the Empire in the West. First Invasion of Italy by Alaric. — Only a few years had elapsed after the death of the great Theodosius, before the bar- barians were trooping in vast hordes through all the regions of the West. First, from Thrace and Moesia came the Visigoths, led by the great Alaric. They poured through the Pass of Thermopylae, and devastated almost the entire peninsula of Greece ; but, being driven from that country by Stilicho, the renowned Vandal gen- eral of Honorius, they crossed the Julian Alps, and spread terror throughout all Italy. Stilicho followed the barbarians cautiously, and, attacking them at a favorable moment, inflicted a terrible and double defeat upon them at Pollentia and Verona (a.d. 402-403). The captured camp was found filled with the spoils of Thebes, Corinth, and Sparta. Gathering the remnants of his shattered army, Alaric forced his way with difficulty through the defiles of the Alps, and escaped. Last Triumph at Rome (a.d. 404). — A terrible danger had been averted. All Italy burst forth in expressions of gratitude and joy. The days of the Cimbri and Teutones were recalled, and the name of Stilicho was pronounced with that of Marius. A magnifi- cent triumph at Rome celebrated the victory and the deliverance. It was the last triumph that Rome ever saw. Three hundred times — such is asserted to be the number — the Imperial City had witnessed the triumphal procession of her victorious generals, celebrating conquests in all quarters of the world. Last Gladiatorial Combat of the Amphitheatre. — The same year that marks the last military triumph at Rome also signahzes the last gladiatorial combat in the Roman amphitheatre. It is to 340 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. Christianity that the credit of the suppression of the inhuman exhibitions of the amphitheatre is entirely, or almost entirely, due. The pagan philosophers usually regarded them with indifference, often with favor. Thus Pliny commends a friend for giving a glad- iatorial entertainment at the funeral of his wife. And when the pagan moralists did condemn the spectacles, it was rather for other reasons than that they regarded them as inhuman and absolutely contrary to the rules of ethics. They were defended on the ground that they fostered a martial spirit among the people and inured the soldier to the sights of the battle-field. Hence gladia,torial games were actually exhibited to the legions before they set out on their campaigns. Indeed, all classes appear to have viewed the matter in much the same light, and with exactly the same absence of moral disapprobation, that we ourselves regard the slaughter of animals for food. But the Christian fathers denounced the combats as absolutely immoral, and labored in every possible way to create a public opinion against them. The members of their own body who attended the spectacles were excommunicated. At length, in A.D. 325, the first imperial edict against them was issued by Constantine. This decree appears to have been very little re- garded ; nevertheless, from this time forward the exhibitions were under something of a ban, until their final abolition was brought about by an incident of the games that closed the triumph of Honorius. In the midst of the exhibition a Christian monk, named Telemachus, descending into the arena, rushed between the combatants, but was instantly killed by a shower of missiles thrown by the people, who were angered by this interruption of their sports. But the people soon repented of their act ; and Honorius himself, who was present, was moved by the scene. Christianity had awakened the conscience and touched the heart of Rome. The martyrdom of the monk led to an imperial edict " which abohshed forever the human sacrifices of the amphi- theatre." Invasion of Italy by Various German Tribes. — While Italy THE RANSOM OF ROME. 341 was celebrating her triumph over the Goths, another and more formidable invasion was preparing in the North. The tribes be- yond the Rhine — the Vandals, the Suevi, the Burgundians, and other peoples — - driven onward by some unknown cause, poured in impetuous streams from the forests and morasses of Germany, and bursting the barriers of the Alps, overspread the devoted plains of Italy. The alarm caused by them among the Italians was even greater than that inspired by the Gothic invasion ; for Alaric was a Christian, while Radagaisus, the leader of the new hordes, was a superstitious savage, who paid worship to gods that required the bloody sacrifice of captive enemies. By such efforts as Rome put forth in the younger and more vigorous days of the republic, when Hannibal was at her gates, an army was now equipped and placed under the command of Stilicho. Meanwhile the barbarians had advanced as far as Florence, and were now besieging that place. StiHcho here surrounded the vast host — variously estimated from 200,000 to 400,000 men — and starved them into a surrender. Their chief, Radagaisus, was put to death, and great multitudes of the barbarians that the sword and famine had spared were sold as slaves (a.d. 406). The Ransom of Rome (a.d. 409). — Shortly after the victory of Stilicho over the German barbarians, he came under the suspi- cion of the weak and jealous Honorius, and was executed. Thus fell the great general whose sword and counsel had twice saved Rome from the barbarians, and who might again have averted similar dangers that were now at hand. Listening to the rash counsels of his unworthy advisers, Honorius provoked to revolt the 30,000 Gothic mercenaries in the Roman legions by a massacre of their wives and children, who were held as hostages in the different cities of Italy. The Goths beyond the Alps joined with their kinsmen to avenge the perfidious act. Alaric again crossed the mountains, and pillaging the cities in his way, led his hosts to the very gates of Rome. Not since the time of the dread Hannibal (see p. 263) — more than six hundred years before — had Rome been insulted by the presence of a foreign foe beneath her walls. 342 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. The barbarians laying siege to the city, famine soon forced the Romans to sue for terms of surrender. The ambassadors of the Senate, when they came before Alaric, began, in lofty language, to warn him not to render the Romans desperate by hard or dishonorable terms : their fury when driven to despair, they repre- sented, was terrible, and their number enormous. " The thicker the grass, the easier to mow it," was Alaric's derisive reply. The barbarian chieftain at length named the ransom that he would accept, and spare the city. Small as it comparatively was, the Romans were able to raise it only by the most extraordinary measures. The images of the gods were stripped of their orna- ments of gold and precious stones, and even the statues themselves were melted down. Sack of Rome by Alaric (a.d. 410). — Upon retiring from Rome, Alaric established his camp in Etruria. Here he was joined by great numbers of fugitive slaves, and by fresh accessions of bar- barians from beyond the Alps. The Gallic king now demanded for his followers lands of Honorius, but the emperor treated all the proposals of the barbarian with foolish insolence. Rome paid the penalty. Alaric turned upon the devoted city, determined upon its sack and plunder. The barbarians broke into the capital by night, " and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremen- dous sound of the Gothic trumpet." Precisely eight hundred years had passed since its sack by the Gauls. During that time the Imperial City had carried its victorious standards over three con- tinents, and had gathered within the temples of its gods and the palaces of its nobles the plunder of the world. Now it was given over for a spoil to the fierce tribes from beyond the Danube. Alaric commanded his soldiers to respect the lives of the peo- ple, and to leave untouched the treasures of the Christian temples ; but the wealth of the citizens he encouraged them to make their own. For six days and nights the rough barbarians trooped through the streets of the city on their mission of pillage. Their wagons were heaped with the costly furniture, the rich plate, and the silken garments stripped from the palaces of the wealthy EFFECTS OF THE DISASTER. 343 patricians and the temples of the gods. Amidst the license of the sack, the barbarian instincts of the robbers broke loose from all restraint, and the city was everywhere wet with blood, while the nights were Hghted with burning buildings. Effects of the Disaster upon Paganism. — The overwhelming disaster that had befallen the Imperial City produced a profound impression upon both Pagans and Christians throughout the Roman world. The former asserted that these unutterable calamities had fallen upon the Roman state because of the abandonment by the people of the worship of the gods of their forefathers, under whose protection and favor Rome had become the mistress of the world. The Christians, on the other hand, saw in the fall of the Eternal City the fulfilment of the prophecies against the Babylon of the Apocalypse. The latter interpretation of the appalling calamity gained credit amidst the panic and despair of the times. The temples of the once popular deities were deserted by their wor- shippers, who had lost faith in gods that could neither save them- selves nor protect their shrines from spoKation. " Henceforth," says Merivale, " the power of paganism was entirely broken, and the indications which occasionally meet us of its continued exist- ence are rare and trifling. Christianity stepped into its deserted inheritance. The Christians occupied the temples, transforming them into churches." The Death of Alaric. — After withdrawing his warriors from Rome, Alaric led them southward. As they moved slowly on, they piled still higher the wagons of their long trains with the rich spoils of the cities and villas of Campania and other districts of Southern Italy. In the villas of the Roman nobles the rough bar- barians spread rare banquets from the stores of their well-filled cellars, and drank from jewelled cups the famed Falernian wine. Alaric led his soldiers to the extreme southern point of Italy, intending to cross the Straits of Messina into Sicily, and, after sub- duing that island, to carry his conquests into the provinces of Africa. His designs were frustrated by his death, which occurred A.D. 412. With religious care his followers . secured the body of 344 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. their hero against violation by his enemies. The little river Busen- tinus, in Northern Bruttium, was turned from its course with great labor, and in the bed of the stream was constructed a tomb, in which was placed the body of the king, with his jewels and tro- phies. The river was then restored to its old channel, and, that the exact spot might never be known, the prisoners who had been forced to do the work were all put to death. The Barbarians Seize the Western Provinces. — We must now turn our eyes from Rome and Italy to observe the movement of events in the provinces. In his efforts to defend Italy, Stihcho had withdrawn the last legion from Britain, and had drained the camps and fortresses of Gaul. The Wall of Antoninus was left unmanned ; the passages of the Rhine were left unguarded ; and the agitated multitudes of barbarians beyond these defences were free to pour their innumerable hosts into all the fair provinces of the empire. Hordes of Suevi, Alani, Vandals, and Burgundians overspread all the plains and valleys of Gaul. The Vandals pushed on into the south of Spain, and there occupied a large tract of country, which, in its present name of Andalusia, preserves the memory of its barbarian settlers. From these regions they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, overran the Roman provinces of Northern Africa, captured Carthage (a.d. 439), and made that city the seat of the dread empire of the Vandals. The Goths, with Italy pillaged, recrossed the Alps, and establishing their camps in the south of Gaul and the north of Spain, set up in those regions what is known as the Kingdom of the Visigoths. In Britain, upon the withdrawal of the Roman legions, the Picts breaking over the Wall of Antoninus, descended upon and pillaged the cities of the South. The half- Romanized and effeminate pro- vincials — no match for their hardy kinsmen who had never bowed their necks to the yoke of Rome — were driven to despair by the ravages of their relentless enemies, and, in their helplessness, in- vited to their aid the Angles and Saxons from the shores of the North Sea. These people came in their rude boats, drove back the invaders, and, being pleased with the soil and climate of the INVASION OF THE HUNS. 345 island, took possession of the country for themselves, and became the ancestors of the English people. Invasion of the Huns : Battle of Chalons. — The barbarians that were thus overrunning and parcelling out the inheritance of the dying empire were now, in turn, pressed upon and terrified by a foe more hideous and dreadful in their eyes than were they in the sight of the peoples among whom they had thrust themselves. These were the non- Aryan Huns, of whom we have already caught a glimpse as they drove the panic-stricken Goths across the Dan- ube. At this time their leader was Attila, whom the affrighted in- habitants of Europe called the " Scourge of God." It was declared that the grass never grew again where once the hoof of Attila's horse had trod. Attila defeated the armies of the Eastern emperor, and exacted tribute from the court of Constantinople. Finally he turned west- ward, and, at the head of a host numbering, it is asserted, 700,000 warriors, crossed the Rhine into Gaul, purposing first to ravage that province, and then to traverse Italy with fire and sword, in order to destroy the last vestige of the Roman power. The Romans and their Gothic conquerors laid aside their ani- mosities, and made common cause against ' the common enemy. The Visigoths were rallied by their king, Theodoric ; the Italians, the Franks, the Burgundians, flocked to the standard of the Roman general Aetius. Attila drew up his mighty hosts upon the plain of Chalons, in the north of Gaul, and there awaited the onset of the Romans and their alHes. The conflict was long and terrible. Theodoric was slain ; but at last fortune turned against the barba- rians. The loss of the Huns is variously estimated at from 100,000 to 300,000 warriors. Attila succeeded in escaping from the field, and retreated with his shattered hosts across the Rhine (a.d. 451)- This great victory is placed among the significant events of his- tory ; for it decided that the Christian Germanic races, and not the pagan Scythic Huns, should inherit the dominions of the ex- " piring Roman Empire, and control the destinies of Europe. 346 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. The Death of Attila. — The year after his defeat at Chalons, Attila again crossed the Alps, and burned or plundered all the important cities of Northern Italy. The Veneti fled for safety to the morasses at the head of the Adriatic (a.d. 452). Upon the islets where they built their rude dwellings, there grew up in time the city of Venice, the "eldest daughter of the Roman Empire," the " Carthage of the Middle xA.ges." The conqueror threatened Rome ; but Leo the Great, bishop of the capital, went with an embassy to the camp of Attila, and pleaded for the city. He recalled to the mind of Attila the fact that death had overtaken the impious Alaric soon after he had given the Imperial City to be sacked, and warned him not to call down upon himself the like judgment of heaven. To these ad- monitions of the Christian bishop was added the persuasion of a golden bribe from the Emperor Valentinian ; and Attila was in- duced to spare Southern Italy, and to lead his warriors back beyond the Alps. Shortly after he had crossed the Danube, he died sud- denly in his camp. His followers gradually withdrew from Europe into the wilds of their native Scythia, or were absorbed by the peoples they had conquered. Sack of Rome by the Vandals (a.d. 455). — Rotne had been saved a visitation from the spoiler of the North, but a new de- struction was about to burst upon it by way of the sea from the South. Africa sent out another enemy whose greed for plunder proved more fatal to Rome than the eternal hate of Hannibal. The kings of the Vandal Empire in Northern Africa had acquired as perfect a supremacy in the Western Mediterranean as Carthage ever enjoyed in the days of her commercial pride. Vandal cor- sairs swept the seas and harassed the coasts of Sicily and Italy, and even plundered the maritime towns of the Eastern provinces. In the year 455 a Vandal fleet, led by the dread Genseric, sailed up the Tiber. Panic seized the people ; for the name of Vandal was pro- nounced with terror throughout the world. Again the great Leo, who had once before saved his flock from the fury of an Attila, FALL OF THE EMPLRE IN THE WEST. 347 went forth to intercede in the name of Christ for the Imperial City. Genseric granted to the pious bishop the hves of the citi- zens, but said that the plunder of the capital belonged to his war- riors. For fourteen days and nights the city was given over to the ruthless barbarians. The ships of the Vandals, which almost hid with their number the waters of the Tiber, were piled, as had been the wagons of the Goths before them, with the rich and weighty spoils of the capital. Palaces were stripped of their ornaments and furniture, and the walls of the temples denuded of their statues and of the trophies of a hundred Roman victories.' From the Capitoline sanctuary were borne off the golden candlestick and other sacred articles that Titus had stolen from the Temple at Jerusalem. The greed of the barbarians was sated at last, and they were ready to withdraw. The Vandal fleet sailed for Carthage,^ bear- ing, besides the plunder of the city, more than 30,000 of the inhabitants as slaves. Carthage, through her own barbarian con- querors, was at last avenged upon her hated rival. The mournful presentiment of Scipio had fallen true (see p. 271). The cruel fate of Carthage might have been read again in the pillaged city that the Vandals left behind them. Fall of the Roman Empire in the West (a.d. 476). — Only the shadow of the Empire in the West now remained. All the prov- inces — Illyricum, Gaul, Britain, Spain, and Africa — were in the hands of the Goths, the Vandals, the Franks, the Burgundians, the Angles and Saxons, and various other intruding tribes. Italy, as well as Rome herself, had become again and again the spoil of the insatiable barbarians. The story of the twenty years following the sack of the capital by Genseric affords only a repetition of the events we have been narrating. During these years several pup- 1 The fleet was overtaken by a storm and sufifered some damage, but the most precious of the relics it bore escaped harm. "The golden candlestick reached the African capital, was recovered a century later, and lodged in Con- stantinople by Justinian, and by him replaced, from superstitious motives, in Jerusalem. From that time its history is lost." — Merivale. 348 DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE. pet emperors were set up by the different leaders of the invading tribes. A final seditious movement placed upon the shadow- throne a child of six years, named Romulus Augustus. Chiefly because of the imperial farce he was forced to play, this child- emperor became known as Augustulus, "the little Augustus." He had reigned only a year, when Odoacer, the leader of a tribe of German mercenaries, dethroned him, and abolishing the title of emperor, took upon himself the government of Italy. The Roman Senate now sent an embassy to Constantinople, with the royal vestments and the insignia of the imperial office, to represent to the Emperor Zeno that the West was willing to give up its claims to an emperor of its own, and to request that the German chief, with the title of " Patrician," might rule Italy as his viceroy. This was granted ; and Italy now became in effect a province of the Empire in the East (a.d. 476). The Roman Empire in the West had come to an end, after an existence from the founding of Rome of 1229 years. FINAL PARTITION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 349 ROMAN EMPERORS FROM COMMODUS TO ROMULUS AUGUSTUS. (a.d. 180-476.) Commodus Pertinax Didius Julianus .... Septimius Severus . . j Caracalla ( Geta Macrinus Elagabalus Alexander Severus . . . Maximin Gordian III Philip Decius Period of the Thirty Tyrants Claudius Aurelian Tacitus Probus Carus f Carinus I Numerian A.D. 180-192 193 193-21 I 2II-2I7 2II-2I2 217-218 218-222 222-235 235-238 238-244 244-249 249-251 251-268 268-270 270-275 275-276 276-282 282-283 283-284 283-284 r Diocletian 284-305 I Maximian 286-305 / Constantius 1 305-306 '. Galerius 305-311 Constantine the Great . . 306-337 Reigns as sole ruler . - . 323-337 Constantine II 337-340 Constans 1 337-350 Constantius II 337-3^1 Reigns as sole ruler . . 350-361 Julian the Apostate . . . 361-363 Jovian 363-364 Valentinian 1 364-375 Valens (in the East) . . 364-378 Gratian ll^-Z'^Z Maximus 383-388 Valentinian II 375-392 Eugenius 392-394 Theodosius the Great . . . 379-395 Reigns as sole emperor . 394-395 FINAL PARTITION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. (A.D. 395.) EMPERORS IN THE EAST. (From A.D. 395 to Fall of Rome.) A.D. Arcadius 395-408 Theodosius II 408-450 Marcian 450-457 Leo I 457-474 Zeno 474-491 EMPERORS IN THE WEST. A.D. Honorius 395-423 Valentinian III 425-455 Maximus 455 Avitus 455-456 Count Ricimer creates and deposes emperors . . . 456-472 Romulus Augustus .... 475-476 350 ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER XXXI. ARCHITECTURE, LITERATURE, LAW, AND SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE ROMANS. I . Architecture. Greek Origin of Roman Architecture : the Arch. — The archi- tecture of the Romans was, in the main, an imitation of Greek models. But the Romans were not mere servile imitators. They not only modified the architectural forms they borrowed, but they gave their structures a distinct character by the prominent use of the arch, which the Greek and Oriental builders seldom employed, though they were acquainted with its properties. By means of it the Roman builders vaulted the roofs of the largest buildings, carried stupendous aqueducts across the deepest valleys, and spanned the broadest streams with bridges that have resisted all the assaults of time and flood to the present day. Sacred Edifices. — The temples of the Romans were in general so like those of the Greeks that we need not here take time and space to enter into a particular description of them. Mention, however, should be made of their circular vaulted temples, as this was a style of building almost exclusively Italian. The best repre- sentative of this style of sacred edifices is the Pantheon at Rome, which has come down to our own times in a state of wonderful preservation. This structure is about 140 feet in diameter. The immense stone dome which vaults the building, is one of the boldest pieces of masonry executed by the master-builders of the world. Circuses, Theatres, and Amphitheatres. — The circuses of the Romans were what we should call race-courses. There were several at Rome, the most celebrated being the Circus Maximus, 352 ARCHITECTURE. which was first laid out in the time of the Tarquins, and afterwards enlarged as the population of the capital increased, until it was capable of holding two or three hundred thousand spectators. The Romans borrowed the plan of their theatres from the Greeks ; their amphitheatres, however, were original with them. The Flavian Amphitheatre, known as the Colosseum, has already come under our notice (see p. 316). The edifice was 574 feet in its greatest diameter, and was capable of seating eighty-seven thousand spectators. The ruins of this immense structure stand to-day as " the embodiment of the power and splendor of the Roman Empire." Aqueducts. — The aqueducts of ancient Rome were among the most important of the utilitarian works of the Romans. The water-system of the capital was commenced by Appius Claudius (about 313 B.C.), who secured the building of an aqueduct which led water into the city from the Sabine hills. During the republic four aqueducts in all were completed ; under the emperors the number was increased td nineteen.^ The longest of these was about fifty-five miles in length. The aqueducts usually ran be- neath the surface, but when a depression was to be crossed, they were lifted on arches, which sometimes were over one hundred feet high. These lofty arches running in long broken lines over the plains beyond the walls of Rome, are the most striking feature of the Campagna at the present time. Thermae, or Baths. — The greatest demand upon the streams of water poured into Rome by the aqueducts was made by the Thermse, or baths. Among the ancients Romans, bathing, re- garded at first simply as a troublesome necessity, became in time a luxurious art. Under the republic, bathing-houses were erected in considerable numbers. But it was during the imperial period that those magnificent structures to which the name of Thermae prop- erly attaches, were erected. These edifices were among the most elaborate and expensive of the imperial works. They contained chambers for cold, hot, tepid, sudatory, and swimming baths ; ^ Several of these are still in use. MEMORIAL AR CHI TE C T URE. 353 dressing-rooms and gymnasia j museums and libraries ; covered colonnades for lounging and conversation, extensive grounds filled with statues and traversed by pleasant walks ; and every other adjunct that could add to the sense of luxury and relaxation. Be- ing intended to exhibit the liberality of their builders, they were thrown open to the public free of charge. Memorial Architecture. — Among the memorial structures of the Romans, their triumphal arches are especially characteristic. ARCH OF CONSTANTINE. These were modelled after the city gates, being constructed with single and with triple archways. Two of the most noted monu- ments of this character, and the most interesting because of their historic connections, are the Arch of Titus (see p. 315) and the Arch of Constantine, both of which are still standing. The Arch of Constantine was intended to commemorate the victory of that emperor over his rival Maxentius, which event established Chris- tianity as the imperial and favored religion of the empire. 354 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW. 2. Literature, Philosophy, and Law. Relation of Roman to Greek Literature : the Poets of the Republican Era. — Latin literature was almost wholly imitative or borrowed, being a reproduction of Greek models ; still it per- formed a most important service for civilization : it was the medium for the dissemination throughout the world of the rich literary- treasures of Greece. It was the dramatic productions of the Greeks which were first studied and copied at Rome. Livius Andronicus, Nsevius, En- nius, Plautus, and Terence, all of whom wrote under the repub- lic, are the most noted of the Roman dramatists. Most of their plays were simply adaptations or translations of Greek master- pieces. Lucilius (born 148 b.c.) was one of the greatest of Roman satirists. The later satirists of the corrupt imperial era were his imitators. Besides Lucilius, there appeared during the later re- publican era only two other poets of distinguished merit, Lucre- tius and Catullus. Lucretius (95-51 b.c.) was an evolutionist, and in his great poem, On the Nature of Things, we find antici- pated many of the conclusions of modern scientists. Poets of the Augustan Age. — We have in another place (see p. 307) spoken of the effects of the fall of the republic upon the development of Latin literature. Many, who if the republican institutions had continued would have been absorbed in the affairs of state, were led, by the change of government, to seek solace for their disappointed hopes, and employment for their enforced leisure, in the graceful labors of elegant composition. Four names have cast an unfading lustre over the period covered by the reign of Augustus, — Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Livy. So distinguished have these writers rendered the age in which they lived, that any period in a people's literature marked by unusual hterary taste and refinement is called, in allusion to the Roman era, an Augus- tan Age. Of the three poets, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, a word SATIRE AND SATIRISTS. 355 has already been said ; of Livy we shall find place to say some- thing a little later, under the head of the Roman historians. Satire and Satirists. — Satire thrives best in the reeking soil and tainted atmosphere of an age of selfishness, immorality, and vice. Such an age was that which followed the Augustan era at Rome. The throne was held by such imperial monsters as Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. The profligacy of fashionable life at the capital and the various watering-places of the empire, and the degradation of the court gave venom and point to the shafts of those who were goaded by the spectacle into attacking the immoralities and vices which were silently yet rapidly sapping the foundations of both society and state. Hence arose a succession of writers whose mastery of sharp and stinging satire has caused their productions to become the models of all subsequent attempts in the same species of literature. Two names stand out in special prominence — Persius and Juvenal, who lived and wrote during the last half of the first and the beginning of the second century of our era. Oratory among the Romans. — " Public oratory," as has been truly said, "is the child of political freedom, and cannot exist without it." We have seen this illustrated in the history of repub- lican Athens. Equally well is the same truth exemplified by the records of the Roman state. All the great orators of Rome arose under the republic. Roman oratory was senatorial, popular, or judicial. These different styles of eloquence were represented by the grave and dignified debates of the Senate, the impassioned and often noisy and inelegant harangues of the Forum, and the learned pleadings or ingenious appeals of the courts. Among the orators of ancient Rome, Hortensius, (114-50 B.C.), an eloquent advocate, and Cicero (106-43 ^-C-) are easily first. Historians. — Ancient Rome produced four writers of history whose works have won for them a permanent fame — Caesar, Sal- lust, Livy, and Tacitus. Of Caesar and his Commentaries on the Gallic War, we have learned in a previous chapter. His Com- 356 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW. rnentaries will always be mentioned with the Anabasis of Xeno- phon, as a model of the narrative style of writing. Sallust (86-34 B.C.) was the contemporary and friend of Caesar. The two works upon which his fame rests are the Conspii^acy of Catiline and the Jugurthine Wa?-. Livy (59 B.C. — A.D. 17) was one of the brightest ornaments of the Augustan age. Herodotus among the ancient, and Macaulay among the modern, writers of historical narrative, are the names with which his is most frequently compared. His greatest work is his Annals, a history of Rome from the earliest times to the year 9 B.C. Unfortunately, all sa.ve thirty-five of the books ^ — the work filled one hundred and forty- two volumes — perished during the disturbed period that followed the overthrow of the empire. Many have been the laments over " the lost books of Livy." As a chronicle of actual events, Livy's history, particularly in its earlier parts, is very unreliable ; however, it is invaluable as an ac- count of what the Romans themselves believed respecting the origin of their race, the founding of their city, and the deeds and virtues of their forefathers. The most highly prized work of Tacitus is his Germania, a treatise on the manners and customs of the Germans. Tacitus dwells with delight upon the simple life of the uncivilized Ger- mans, and sets their virtues in strong contrast with the immorali- ties of the refined and cultured Romans. Ethics, Science, and Philosophy. — Under this head may be grouped the names of Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus. Seneca (about a.d. 1-65), moralist and philoso- pher, has already come to our notice as the tutor of Nero (see p. 312). He was a disbeliever in the popular religion of his countrymen, and entertained conceptions of God and his moral 1 It should be borne in mind that a book in the ancient sense was simply a roll of manuscript or parchment, and contained nothing like the amount of matter held by an ordinary modern volume. Thus Csesar's Gallic Wars, which makes a single volume of moderate size with us, made eight Roman books. ETHICS, SCIENCE, AND PHIIOSOPHY. 357 government not very different from the doctrines of Socrates. Pliny the Elder (a.d. 23-79) is almost the only Roman who won renown as a nat- uralist. The only work of his that has been spared to us is his Natu- ral History, a sort ot " Roman Ency- clopaedia," embra- cing thirty-seven books. Marcus Aurelius the emperor and Epictetus the slave hold prominent /' places among the ethical teachers of Rome. Of the emperor as a phi- losopher we have already spoken (see p. 321). Epictetus (b. about 60 a.d.) was for many years a slave at the capital ; but, securing in some way his freedom, he became a teacher of philosophy. Epictetus and Aurehus were the last emi- nent representatives and expositors of the philosophy of Zeno. Christianity, giving a larger place to the affections than did Stoicism, was already fast winning the hearts of men. Writers of the Early Latin Church. — The Christian authors of the first three centuries, like the writers of the New Testament, employed the Greek, that being the language of learning and cul- ture. As the Latin tongue, however, came into more general use throughout the extended provinces of the Roman empire, the Christian authors naturally began to use the same in the composi- # SENECA. 358 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW. tion of their works. Hence, almost all the writings of the Fathers of the Church, produced during the last two centuries of the empire, were composed in Latin. Among the many names that adorn the Church literature of this period may be mentioned Saint Jerome and Saint Augustine, — the former celebrated for his trans- lation of the Scriptures into Latin,^ and the latter for his " City of God." This was truly a wonderful work. It was written just when Rome was becoming the spoil of the barbarians, and was designed to answer the charge of the pagans that Christianity, turning the hearts of the people away from the worship of the ancient gods, was the cause of the calamities that were befalling the Roman state. Roman Law and Law Literature. — Although the Latin writers in all the departments of literary effort which we have so far reviewed did much valuable work, yet the Roman intellect in all these directions was under Greek guidance. Its work was largely imitative. But in another department it was different. We mean, of course, the field of legal and political science. Here the Ro- mans ceased to be pupils, and became teachers. Nations, like men, have their mission. Rome's mission was to give laws to the world. In the year 527 a.d. Justinian became emperor of the Roman empire in the East. He almost immediately appointed a commis- sion, headed by the great lawyer Tribonian, to collect and arrange in a systematic manner the immense mass of Roman laws, and the writings of the jurists. The undertaking was like that of the Decemvirs in connection with the Twelve Tables (see p. 236), only far greater. The result of the work of the commission was what is known as the Corpus Juris Civilis, or "Body of the Civil Law." This consisted of three parts : the Code, the Pandects and the Institutes? The Code was a revised and compressed col- lection of all the laws, instructions to judicial officers, and opinions on legal subjects, promulgated by the different emperors since 1 The Vulgate, which is the version still used in the Roman Catholic Church. 2 A later work called the Novels comprised the laws of Justinian subsequent to the completion of the Code. EDUCATION. 359 the time of Hadrian ; the Pandects (all-containing) were a digest or abridgment of the writings, opinions, and decisions of the most eminent of the old Roman jurists and lawyers. The Institutes were a condensed edition of the Pandects, and were intended to form an elementary text-book for the use of students in the great law-schools of the empire. The Body of the Roman Law thus preserved and transmitted was the great contribution of the Latin intellect to civilization. It has exerted a profound influence upon all the law-systems of Europe. Thus does the once httle Palatine city of the Tiber still rule the world. The religion of Judea, the arts of Greece, and the laws of Rome are three very real and potent elements in modern civihzation. 3. Social Life. Education. — Roman children were subject in an extraordinary manner to their father (^paterfamilias). They were regarded as his property, and their life and liberty were in general at his abso- lute disposal. This power he exercised by usually drowning at birth the deformed or sickly child. Even the married son re- mained legally subject to his father, who could banish him, sell him as a slave, or even put him to death. It should be said, how- ever, that the right of putting to death was seldom exercised, and that in the time of the empire the law put some Hmitations upon it. The education of the Roman boy differed from that of the Greek youth in being more practical. The Laws of the Twelve Tables were committed to memory ; and rhetoric and oratory were given special attention, as a mastery of the art of pubhc speaking was an almost indispensable acquirement for the Roman citizen who aspired to take a prominent part in the affairs of state. After the conquest of Magna Grsecia and of Greece, the Romans were brought into closer relations than had hitherto existed with Greek culture. The Roman youth were taught the language of Athens, often to the neglect, it appears, of their native tongue. Young men belonging to families of means, not unusually went to 360 SOCIAL LIFE. Greece, just as the graduates of our schools go to Europe, to finish their education. Many of the most prominent statesmen of Rome, as for instance Cicero and Juhus Caesar, received the advantages of this higher training in the schools of Greece. Somewhere between the age of fourteen and eighteen the boy exchanged his purple-hemmed toga, or gown, for one of white wool, which was in all places and at all times the significant badge of Roman citizenship. Social Position of Woman. — Until after her marriage, the daughter of the family was kept in almost Oriental seclusion. Marriage gave her a certain freedom. She might now be present at the races of the circus and the various shows of the theatre and the arena, a privilege rarely accorded to her before marriage. In the early virtuous period of the Roman state, divorce was unusual, but in later and more degenerate times, it became very common. The husband had the right to divorce his wife for the slightest cause, or for no cause at all. In this disregard of the sanctity of the family relation, may doubtless be found one cause of the degeneracy and failure of the Roman stock. Public Amusements. — The entertainments of the theatre, the games of the circus, and the combats of the amphitheatre were the three principal public amusements of the Romans. These entertainments in general increased in popularity as liberty de- clined, the great festive gatherings at the various places of amuse- ment taking the place of the political assembhes of the republic. The public exhibitions under the empire were, in a certain sense, the compensation which the emperors offered the people for their surrender of the right of participation in public affairs, — and the people were content to accept the exchange. Tragedy was never held in high esteem at Rome : the people saw too much real tragedy in the exhibitions of the amphitheatre to care much for the make-believe tragedies of the stage. The entertainments of the theatres usually took the form of comedies, farces, and pantomimes. The last were particularly popular, both because the vast size of the theatres made it quite impossible for GLADIATORIAL COMBATS. 361 the actor to make his voice heard throughout the structure, and for the reason that the language of signs was the only language that could be readily understood by an audience made up of so many different nationalities as composed a Roman assemblage. More important and more popular than the entertainments of the theatre were the various games, especially the chariot races, of the circus. But surpassing in their terrible fascination all other public amusements were the animal-baitings and the gladiatorial combats of the arena. The beasts required for the baitings were secured in different parts of the world, and transported to Rome and the other cities of the empire at an enormous expense. The wildernesses of Northern Europe furnished bears and wolves ; Africa contributed lions, crocodiles, and leopards ; Asia elephants and tigers. These creatures were pitted against one another in every conceivable way. Often a promiscuous multitude would be turned loose in the arena at once. But even the terrific scene that then ensued, became at last too tame to stir the blood of the Roman populace. Hence a new species of show was introduced, and grew rapidly into favor with the spectators of the amphitheatre. This was the gladiatorial combat. The Gladiatorial Combats. — Gladiatorial games seem to have had their origin in Etruria, whence they were brought to Rome. It was a custom among the early Etruscans to slay prisoners upon the warrior's grave, it being thought that the spirit of the dead delighted in the blood of such victims. In time the, condemned prisoners were allowed to fight and kill one another, this being deemed more humane than their cold-blooded slaughter. Thus it happened that sentiments of humanity gave rise to an institution which, afterwards perverted, became the most inhuman of any that ever existed among a civilized people. The first gladiatorial spectacle at Rome was presented by two sons at the funeral of their father, in the year 264 B.C. This exhi- bition was arranged in one of the forums, as there were at that time no amphitheatres in existence. From this time the pubHc 362 SOCIAL LIFE. taste for this species of entertainment grew rapidly, and by the beginning of the imperial period had mounted into a perfect pas- sion. It was now no longer the manes of the dead, but the spirits of the living, that they were intended to appease. At first the combatants were slaves, captives, or condemned criminals ; but at last knights, senators, and even women descended into the arena. Training-schools were established at Rome, Capua, Ravenna, and other cities. Free citizens often sold themselves to the keepers of these seminaries ; and to them flocked desperate men of all classes, and ruined spendthrifts of the noblest patrician houses. Slaves and criminals were encouraged to become proficient in this art by the promise of freedom if they survived the combats beyond a certain number of years. Sometimes the gladiators fought in pairs ; again great companies engaged at once in the deadly fray. They fought in chariots, on horse- back, on foot — in ail the ways that soldiers were ac- customed to fight in actual battle. The contestants were armed with lances, swords, daggers, tridents, and every manner of weapon. Some were provided with nets and lassos, with which they entangled their adversaries, and then slew them. The life of a wounded gladiator was in the hands of the audi- ence. If in response to his appeal for mercy, which was made by outstretching the forefinger, the spectators reached out their hands with thumbs turned down, that indicated that his prayer had been heard and that the sword was to be sheathed ; but if they ex- tended their hands with thumbs turned up, that was the signal for the victor to complete his work upon his wounded foe. Some- times the dying were aroused and forced on to the fight by burn- ing with a hot iron. The dead bodies were dragged from the GLADIATORS, (After an old Mosaic.) DISTRIBUTION OF CORM. 363 arena with hooks, like the carcasses of animals, a,nd the pools of blood soaked up with dry sand. These shows increased to such an extent that they entirely over- shadowed the entertainments of the circus and the theatre. Am- bitious officials and commanders arranged such spectacles in order to curry favor with the masses ; magistrates were expected to give them in connection with the public festivals ; the heads of aspiring families exhibited them " in order to acquire social position " ; wealthy citizens prepared them as an indispensable feature of a fashionable banquet ; the children caught the spirit of their elders and imitated them in their plays. The demand for gladiators was met by the training-schools ; the managers of these hired out bands of trained men, that travelled through the country like opera troupes among us, and gave exhibitions in private houses or in the provincial amphitheatres. The rivalries between ambitious leaders during the later years of the repubhc tended greatly to increase the number of gladiato- rial shows, as hberality in arranging these spectacles was a sure passport to popular favor. It was reserved for the emperors, how- ever, to exhibit them on a truly imperial scale. Titus, upon the dedication of the Flavian Amphitheatre, provided games, mostly gladiatorial combats, that lasted one hundred days. Trajan cele- brated his victories with shows that continued still longer, in the progress of which 10,000 gladiators fought upon the arena, and more than that number of wild beasts were slain. (For the sup- pression of the gladiatorial games, see p. 339.) State Distribution of Corn. — The free distribution of corn at Rome has been characterized as the "' leading fact of Roman hfe." It will be recalled that this pernicious practice had its beginnings in the legislation of Caius Gracchus (see p. 276). Just before the establishment of the empire, over 300,000 Roman citizens were recipients of this state bounty. In the time of the Antonines the number is asserted to have been even larger. The corn for this enormous distribution was derived in large part from a grain tribute exacted of the African and other corn-producing provinces. The 364 SOCIAL LIFE. evils that resulted from this misdirected state charity can hardly be overstated. Idleness and all its accompanying vices were fos- tered to such a degree that we probably shall not be wrong in enumerating the practice as one of the most prominent causes of the demoraHzation of society at Rome under the emperors. Slavery. — A still more demoralizing element in Roman life than that of the state largesses of corn, was the institution of slavery. The number of slaves in the Roman state under the later republic and the earlier empire was probably as great or even greater than the number of freemen. The love of ostenta- tion led to the multiplication of offices in the households of the wealthy, and the employment of a special slave for every different kind of work. Thus there was the slave called the sandalio, whose sole duty it was to care for his master's sandals ; and another, called the nomenclator, whose exclusive business it was to accom- pany his master when he went upon the street, and give him the names of such persons as he ought to recognize. The price of slaves varied from a few dollars to ten or twenty thousand dollars, — these last figures being of course exceptional. Greek slaves were the most valuable, as their lively intelligence rendered them serviceable in positions calling for special talent. The slave class was chiefly recruited, as in Greece, by war, and by the practice of kidnapping. Some of the outlying provinces in Asia and Africa were almost depopulated by the slave hunters. Delinquent tax payers were often sold as slaves, and frequently poor persons sold themselves into servitude. Slaves were treated better under the empire than under the later repubhc (see p. 273), a change to be attributed doubtless to the softening influence of the Stoical philosophy and of Chris- tianity. The feeling entertained towards this unfortunate class in the later republican period is illustrated by Varro's classification of slaves as " vocal agricultural implements," and again by Cato the Elder's recommendation that old and worn-out slaves be sold, as a matter of economy. Sick and hopelessly infirm slaves were taken to an island in the Tiber and left there to die of starvation SLA VER V. 365 and exposure. In many cases, as a measure of precaution, the slaves were forced to work in chains, and to sleep in subterranean prisons. Their bitter hatred towards their masters, engendered by harsh treatment, is witn^essed by the well-known proverb, " As many enemies as slaves," and by the servile revolts and wars of the republican period. But from the first century of the empire there is observable a growing sentiment of humanity towards the bondsman. Imperial edicts take away from the master the right to kill his slave, or to sell him to the trader in gladiators, or even to treat him with any undue severity. This marks the beginning of a slow reform which in the course of ten or twelve centuries resulted in the complete abolition of slavery in Christian Europe. SARCOPHAGUS OF CORNELIUS SCIPIO BARBATUS (Consul 298 B.C.)- Part II. medijEVAl and modern history. INTRODUCTION. Divisions of the Subject. — As we have aheady noted, the fourteen centuries smce the fall of the Roman empire in the West (a.d. 476) are usually divided into two periods, — the Middle Ages, or the period lying between the fall of Rome and the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, and the Modern Age, which ex- tends from the latter event to the present time. The Middle Ages, again, naturally subdivide into two periods, — the Dark Ages, and the Age of Revival ; while the Modern Age also falls into two divisions, — the Era of the Protestant Refoimation, and the Era of the Political Revolution. Chief Characteristics of the Four Periods. — The so-called Dark Ages embrace the years intervening between the fall of Rome and the opening of the eleventh century. The period was one of origins, — of the beginnings of peoples and languages and institutions. During this time arose the Papacy and Feudalism, the two great institutions of the Mediaeval Ag^s. The Age of Revival begins with the opening of the eleventh century, and ends with the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492. During all this time civilization was making slow but sure advances. The last century of the period, especially, was marked by a great revival of classical learning (known as the Renaissance, or New Birth), by improvements, inventions, and discoveries, which greatly stirred men's minds, and awakened them as from a sleep. The Crusades, or Holy Wars, were the most remarkable undertakings of the age. THE FALL OF ROME. 367 The Era of the Reformation embraces the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth. The period is characterized by the great rehgious movement known as the Reformation, and the tremendous struggle between Cathohcism and Protestantism. Almost all the wars of the period were religious wars. The last great combat was the Thirty Years' War in Germany, which was closed by the celebrated Peace of Westphalia, in 1648. After this date the disputes and wars between parties and nations were political rather than religious in character. .The Era of the Political Revolution extends from the Peace of Westphalia to the present time. This age is especially marked by the great conflict between despotic and liberal principles of gov- ernment, resulting in the triumph of democratic ideas. The central event of the period is the French Revolution. Having now made a general survey of the ground we are to traverse, we must return to our starting-point, — the fall of Rome. Relation of the Fall of Rome to World-History. — The ca- lamity which in the fifth century befell the Roman empire in the West is sometimes represented as having destroyed the treasures of the Old World. It was not so. All that was really valuable in the accumulations of antiquity escaped harm, and became sooner or later the possession of the succeeding ages. The catastrophe simply prepared the way for the shifting of the scene of civiliza- tion from the south to the north of Europe, simply transferred at once poHtical power, and gradually social and intellectual pre- eminence, from one branch of the Aryan family to another, — from the Graeco-Italic to the Teutonic. The event was not an unrelieved calamity, because, fortunately, the floods that seemed to be sweeping so much away were not the mountain torrent, which covers fruitful fields with worthless drift, but the overflowing Nile with its rich deposits. Over all the regions covered by the barbarian inundation a new stratum of population was deposited, a new soil formed that was capable of nourishing a better civilization than any the world had yet seen. 368 INTRODUCTION. The Three Elements of Civilization. — We must now notice what survived the catastrophe of the fifth century, what it was that Rome transmitted to the new rulers of the world, the Teutonic race. This renders necessary an analysis of the elements of civilization. Modern civilization is the result of the blending of three his- toric elements, — the Classical, the Hebrew, and the Teutonic. By the classical element in civihzation is meant that whole body of arts, sciences, literatures, laws, manners, ideas, and social arrange- ments, — everything, in a word, save Christianity, that Greece and Rome gave to mediaeval and modern Europe. Taken together, these things constituted a valuable gift to the new northern race that was henceforth to represent civilization. By the Hebrew element in history is meant Christianity. This has been the most potent factor in modern civihzation. It has so colored the whole life, and so moulded all the institutions of the European people that their history is very largely a story of the fortunes and influences of this religion, which, first going forth from Judea, was given to the younger world by the missionaries of Rome. By the Teutonic element in history is meant of course the Ger- manic race. The Teutons were poor in those things in which the Romans were rich. They had neither arts, nor sciences, nor phil- osophies, nor literatures. But they had something better than all these ; they had personal worth. Three prominent traits of theirs we must especially notice ; namely, their capacity for civilization, their love of personal freedom, and their reverence for woman- hood. The Teutons fortunately belonged to a progressive family of peoples. As Kingsley puts it, they came of a royal race. They were Aryans. It was their boundless capacity for growth, for culture, for civilization, which saved the countries of the West from the sterility and barbarism reserved for those of the East that were destined to be taken possession of by the Turanian Turks. CELTS, SLAVONIANS, AND OTHER PEOPLES. 369 The Teutons loved personal freedom. They never called any man master, but followed their chosen leader as companions and equals. They could not even bear to have the houses of their villages set close together. And again we see the same indepen- dent spirit expressed in their assemblies of freemen, in which meetings, all matters of public interest were debated and decided. In this trait of the Teutonic disposition lay the germ of represen- tative government and of Protestant, or Teutonic Christianity. A feeling of respect for woman characterized all the northern, or Teutonic peoples. Tacitus says of the Germans that they deemed something sacred to reside in woman's nature. This sentiment guarded the purity and sanctity of the home. In their high estimation of the sacredness of the family relation, the bar- barians stood in marked contrast with the later Romans. Our own sacred word ho7ne, as well as all that it represents, comes from our Teutonic ancestors. Celts, Slavonians, and Other Peoples. — Having noticed the Romans and Teutons, the two most prominent peoples that pre- sent themselves to us at the time of the downfall of Rome, if we now name the Celts, the Slavonians, the Persians, the Arabians, and the Turanian tribes of Asia, we shall have under view the chief actors in the drama of mediaeval and modern history. At the commencement of the mediaeval era the Celts were in front of the Teutons, clinging to the western edge of the European continent, and engaged in a bitter contest with these latter peo- ples, which, in the antagonism of England and Ireland, was des- tined to extend itself to our own day. The Slavonians were in the rear of the Teutonic tribes, press- ing them on even as the Celts in front were strugghng to resist their advance. These peoples, progressing but little beyond the pastoral state before the Modern Age, will play only an obscure part in the events of the mediaeval era, but in the course of the modern period will assume a most commanding position among the European nations. The Persians were in their old seat beyond the Euphrates, 370 INTR OD UC TION. maintaining there what is called the New Persian Empire, the kings of which, until the rise of the Saracens in the seventh century, were the most formidable rivals of the emperors of Constantinople. The Arabians were hidden in their deserts ; but in the seventh century we shall see them, animated by a wonderful religious fanaticism, issue from their peninsula and begin a contest with the Christian nations of the East and the West which, in its vary- ing phases, was destined to fill a large part of the mediaeval period. The Tartar tribes were buried in Central Asia. They will appear late in the eleventh century, proselytes for the most part of Mohammedanism ; and, as the religious ardor of the Semitic Arabians grows cool, we shall see the Crescent upheld by these zealous converts of another race, and finally, in the fifteenth century, placed by the Turks upon the dome of St. Sophia in Constantinople. As the Middle Ages draw to a close, the remote nations of East- ern Asia will gradually come within our circle of vision ; and, as the Modern Age dawns, we shall catch a glimpse of new continents and strange races of men beyond the Atlantic. EUROPE m THE REIGN OF THEODORIC C A. D. 500. [ I Roman Empire I I Teutonic Settlements^ I I Celts 25 30 ^5 40 45 50 55 60 SECTION I. — MEDIyEVAL HISTORY. FIRST PERIOD. — THE DARK AGES. (FROM THE FALL OF ROME, A.D. 476, TO THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.) CHAPTER XXXIL THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS. Introductory, — In connection with the history of the break-up of the Roman empire in the West, we have already given some account of the migrations and settlements of the German tribes. In the present chapter we shall relate briefly the political fortunes, for the two centuries following the fall of Rome, of the principal kingdoms set up by the German chieftains in the different prov- inces of the old empire. Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (a.d. 493-554). — Odoacer will be recalled as the barbarian chief who dethroned the last of the Western Roman emperors (see p. 348). His feeble government in Italy lasted only seventeen years, when it was brought to a close by the invasion of the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) under Theodoric, the greatest of their chiefs, who set up in Italy a new dominion, known as the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths. The reign of Theodoric covered thirty-three years — years of such quiet and prosperity as Italy had not known since the happy era of the Antonines. The king made good his promise that his reign should be such that " the only regret of the people should be that the Goths had not come at an earlier period." The kingdom established by the rare abilities of Theodoric 372 THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS. lasted only twenty-seven years after his death, which occurred a.d. 527. Justinian, emperor of the East, taking advantage of that event, sent his generals, first Belisarius and afterwards Narses, to deliver Italy from the rule of the barbarians. The last of the Ostrogothic kings fell in battle, and Italy, with her fields ravaged and her cities in ruins, was reunited to the empire (a.d. 554). Kingdom of the Visigoths (a.d. 415-71 i). — The Visigoths (Western Goths) were already in possession of Spain and Southern Gaul at the time of the fall of Rome. Being driven south of the Pyrenees by Clovis, king of the Franks, they held possession of Spain until the beginning of the eighth century, when the Saracens crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, destroyed the kingdom of Rod- erick, the last of the Gothic kings, and established throughout the country the authority of the Koran (a.d. 711). The Visi- gothic empire when thus overturned had lasted nearly three hundred years. During this time the conquerors had mingled with the old Romanized inhabitants of Spain, so that in the veins of the Spaniard of to-day is blended the blood of Iberian, Celt, Roman, and Teuton, together with that of the last comers, the Moors. Kingdom of the Burgundians (a.d. 443-534). — The Burgun- dians, who were near kinsmen of the Goths, built up a kingdom in Southeastern Gaul. A portion of this ancient domain still retains, from these German settlers, the name of "Burgundy." The Burgundians soon came in collision with the Franks on the north, and were reduced by the Frankish kings to a state of dependence. Kingdom of the Vandals (a.d. 429-533). — We have already spoken of the estabhshment in North Africa of the kingdom of the Vandals, and told how, under the lead of their king Genseric, they bore in triumph down the Tiber the heavy spoils of Rome, (seep. 346). Being Arian Christians, the Vandals persecuted with furious zeal the orthodox party, the followers of Athanasius. Moved by the entreaties of the African Catholics, the Emperor Justinian sent his general Belisarius to drive the barbarians from Africa, and to THE FRANKS. 373 restore that province to the bosom of the true Cathohc Church. The expedition was successful, and Carthage and the fruitful fields of Africa were restored to the em- pire, after having suffered the inso- lence of the barbarian conquerors for the space of one hundred years. The Vandals remaining in the country were gradually absorbed by the old Roman population, and after a few generations no certain trace of the barbarian invaders could be detected in the physi- cal appearance, the language, or the customs of the inhabitants of the African coast. The Vandal nation had disappeared ; the name alone remained. The Franks under the Mero- vingians (a.d. 486-752). — The Franks, who were destined to give a new name to Gaul and form the nucleus of the French nation, made their first settlement west of the Rhine about two hundred years before the fall of Rome. The name was the common desig- nation of a number of Teutonic tribes that had formed a confeder- ation while dwelling beyond the Rhine. The Salian Franks were the leading tribe of the league, and it was from the members of their most powerful family, who CLOVIS AND THE VASE OF SOiSSONS.i (After a drawing by Alphonse de Neuville.) 1 The story of the Vase of Soissons illustrates at once the customs of the Franks and the power and personal character of their leader Clovis. Upon 374 THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS. traced their descent from Merovaeus, a legendary sea-king of the Franks, that leaders were chosen by the free vote of all the war- riors. After the downfall of Rome, Clovis, then chief of the Franks, conceived the ambition of erecting a kingdom upon the ruins of the Roman power. He attacked Syagrius, the Roman governor of Gaul, and at Soissons gained a decisive victory over his forces (a.d. 486). Thus was destroyed forever in Gaul that Roman authority established among its barbarous tribes more than five centuries before by the conquests of Julius Caesar. During his reign, Clovis extended his authority over the greater part of Gaul, reducing to the condition of tributaries the various Teutonic tribes that had taken possession of different portions of the country. About a century and a half of discord followed his energetic rule, by the end of which time the princes of the house of Merovseus had become so feeble and inefficient that they were contemptuously called " do-nothings," and an ambitious officer of the crown, who bore the title of Mayor of the Palace, pushed aside his imbecile master, and gave to the Frankish monarchy a new royal line, — the Carolingian (see p. 404). Kingdom of the Lombards (a.d. 568-774). — The circum- stances attending the establishment of the Lombards in Italy were very like those marking the settlement of the Ostrogoths. The Lombards (Langobardi), so called either from their long beards, or their long battle-axes, came from the region of the Upper Danube. In just such a march as the Ostrogoths had made nearly a century before, the Lombard nation crossed the Alps and descended upon the plains of Italy. After many years the division at Soissons of some spoils, Clovis asked his followers to set aside a rule whereby they divided the booty by lot, and to let him have a certain beautiful vase. One of his followers objected, and broke the vase to pieces with his battle-axe. Clovis concealed his anger at the time, but some time afterwards, when reviewing his troops, he approached the man who had of- fended him, and chiding him for not keeping his arms bright, cleft his head with a battle-axe, at the same time exclaiming, "Thus didst thou to the vase of Soissons." THE ANGLO-SAXONS IN BRITAIN. 375 of desperate fighting, they wrested from the empire ^ all the penin- sula save some of the great cities, and set up in the country a monarchy which lasted almost exactly two centuries. The rule of the Lombard princes was brought to an end by Charlemagne, the greatest of the Frankish rulers (see p. 405); but the blood of the invaders had by this time become inter- mingled with that of the former subjects of the Roman empire, so that throughout all that part of the peninsula which is still called Lombardy after them, the people at the present day reveal, in the light hair and fair features which distinguish them from the inhabitants of Southern Italy, their partly German origin. The Anglo-Saxons in Britain. — We have already seen how in the time of Rome's distress the Angles and Saxons secured a foot- hold in Britain (see p. 344). The advance of the invaders here was stubbornly resisted by the half-Romanized Celts of the island. At the end of a century and a half of fighting, the German tribes had gained possession of only the eastern half of what is now Eng- land. On the conquered soil they set up eight or nine, or perhaps more, petty kingdoms. For the space of two hundred years there was an almost perpetual strife among these states for supremacy. Finally Egbert, king of the West Saxons, brought all the other states into a subject or tributary condition, and became the first king of the English, and the founder of the long line of Saxon monarchs (a.d. 827). Teutonic Tribes outside the Empire. — We have now spoken of the most important of the Teutonic tribes that forced them- selves within the limits of the Roman empire in the West, and that there, upon the ruins of the civilization they had overthrown, laid or helped to lay the foundations of the modern nations of Italy, Spain, France, and England. Beyond the boundaries of the old empire were still other tribes and clans of this same mighty 1 Italy, it will be borne in mind, had but recently been delivered from the hands of the Ostrogoths by the lieutenants of the Eastern emperor (see p. 372). 376 THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS. family of nations, — tribes and clans that were destined to play great parts in European history. On the east, beyond the Rhine, were the ancestors of the modern Germans. Notwithstanding the immense hosts that the forests and morasses of Germany had poured into the Roman provinces, the Father-land, in the sixth century of our era, seemed still as crowded as before the great migration began. These tribes were yet savages in manners and for the most part pagans in religion. In the northwest of Europe were the Scandinavians, the ances- tors of the modern Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. They were as yet untouched either by the civilization or the rehgion of Rome. We shall scarcely get a glimpse of them before the ninth century, when they will appear as the Northmen, the dreaded corsairs of the northern seas. INTR OD UCTOR V. 377 CHAPTER XXXriI. THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. Introductory. — The most important event in the history of the tribes that took possession of the Roman empire in the West was their conversion to Christianity. Many of the barbarians were converted before or soon after their entrance into the em- pire ; to this circumstance the Roman provinces owed their im- munity from the excessive cruelties which pagan barbarians seldom fail to inflict upon a subjected enemy. Alaric left untouched the treasures of the churches of the Roman Christians, because his own faith was also Christian (see p. 342). For like reason the Vandal king Genseric yielded to the prayers of Pope Leo the Great, and promised to leave to the inhabitants of the Imperial City their lives (see p. 346). The more tolerable fate of Italy, Spain, and Gaul, as compared with the hard fate of Britain, is owing, in part at least, to the fact that the tribes which overran those countries had become, in the main, converts to Christianity before they crossed the boundaries of the empire, while the Saxons, when they entered Britain, were still untamed pagans. Conversion of the Goths, Vandals, and Other Tribes. — The first converts to Christianity among the barbarians beyond the limits of the empire were won from among the Goths. Foremost of the apostles that arose among them was Ulfilas, who translated the Scriptures into the Gothic language, omitting from his version, however, "the Book of Kings," as he feared that the stirring recital of wars and battles in that portion of the Word might kindle into too fierce a flame the martial ardor of his new con- verts. When the Visigoths, distressed by the Huns, besought the East- ern Emperor Valens for permission to cross the Danube, one of 378 CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. the conditions imposed upon them was that they should all be baptized in the Christian faith (see p. 336). This seems to have crowned the work that had been going on among them for some time, and thereafter they were called Christians. What happened to the Goths happened also to most of the barbarian tribes that participated in the overthrow of the Roman empire in the West. By the time of the fall of Rome, the Goths, the Vandals, the Suevi, the Burgundians, had all become proselytes to Christianity. The greater part of them, however, professed the Arian creed, which had been condemned by the great council of the church held at Nicsea during the reign of Con- stantine the Great (see p. 332). Hence they were regarded as heretics by the Roman Church, and all had to be reconverted to the orthodox creed, which was gradually effected. The remaining Teutonic tribes of whose conversion we shall speak, — the Franks, the Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians, and the chief tribes of Germany, — embraced at the outset the Cathohc faith. Conversion of the Franks. — The Franks, when they entered the empire, like the Angles and Saxons when they landed in Britain, were still pagans. Christianity gained way very slowly among them until a supposed interposition by the Christian God in their behalf led the king and nation to adopt the new religion in place of their old faith. The circumstances were these. In the year 496 of our era, the Alemanni crossed the Rhine and fell upon the Franks. A desperate battle ensued. In the midst of it, Clovis, falling upon his knees, called upon the God of the Chris- tians, and solemnly vowed that if He would give victory to his arms, he would become his faithful follower. The battle turned in favor of the Franks, and Clovis, faithful to his vow, was baptized, and with him several thousand of his warriors. This incident illus- trates how the very superstitions of the barbarians, their belief in omens and divine interpositions, contributed to their conversion. Augustine's Mission to the Angles and Saxons in Britain. — In the year 596 Pope Gregory I. sent the monk Augustine with THE CELTIC CHURCH. 379 a band of forty companions to teach the Christian faith in Britain. Gregory had become interested in the inhabitants of that remote region in the following way. One day, some years before his ele- vation to the papal chair, he was passing through the slave- market at Rome, and noticed there some English captives, whose fair features awakened his curiosity respecting them. Inquiring of what nation they were, he was told that they were called Angles. '' Right," said he, "for they have an angelic face, and it becomes such to become co-heirs with the angels in heaven." A little while afterwards he was elected Pope, and still mindful of the incident of the slave-market, he sent to the Angles the embassy to which we have alluded. The monks were favorably received by the English, who listened attentively to the story the strangers had come to tell them, and being persuaded that the tidings were true, they burned the tem- ples of Woden and Thor, and were in large numbers baptized in the Christian faith. The Celtic Church. — It here becomes necessary for us to say a word respecting the Celtic Church. Christianity, it must be borne in mind, held its place among the Celts whom the Saxons crowded slowly westward. Now, during the very period that England was being wrested from the Celtic warriors, the Celtic missionaries were effecting the spiritual conquest of Ireland. Among these messengers of the Cross, was a zealous priest named Patricius, better known as Saint Patrick, the patron saint of the Irish. Never did any race receive the Gospel with more ardent enthu- siasm. The Irish Church sent out its devoted missionaries into the Pictish Highlands, into the forests of Germany, and among the wilds of Alps and Apennines. '" For a time it seemed," says the historian Green, " that the course of the world's history was to be changed ; as if the older Celtic race that Roman and German had driven before them had turned to the moral conquest of their conquerors ; as if Celtic, and not Latin, Christianity was to mould the destinies of the churches of the West." Among the numerous religious houses founded by the Celtic 380 CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. missionaries was the famous monastery established about a.d. 564 by the Irish monk Saint Columba, on the Httle isle of lona, just off the Pictish coast. lona became a most renowned centre of Christian learning and missionary zeal, and for almost two centu- ries was the point from which radiated light through the darkness of the surrounding heathenism. Fitly has it been called the Nursery of Saints and the Oracle of the West. Rivalry between the Roman and the Celtic Church. — Now, from the very moment that Augustine touched the shores of Brit- ain and summoned the Welsh clergy to acknowledge the discipline of the Roman Church, there had been a growing jealousy between the Latin and the Celtic Church, which by this time had risen into the bitterest rivalry and strife. So long had the Celtic Church been cut off from all relations with Rome, that it had come to differ somewhat from it in the matter of certain ceremonies and observances, such as the time of keeping Easter and the form of the tonsure. Furthermore, it was inclined to look upon St. John rather than upon St. Peter as the apostle of pre-eminence. The Council of Whitby (a.d. 664). — With a view to settling the quarrel Oswy, king of Northumbria, called a synod composed of representatives of both parties, at the monastery of Whitby. The chief question of debate, which was argued before the king by the ablest advocates of both Churches, was the proper time for the observance of Easter. Finally Wilfred, the speaker for the Roman party, happening to quote the words of Christ to Peter, "To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven," the king asked the Celtic monks if these words were really spoken by Christ to that apostle, and upon their admitting that they were, Oswy said, " He being the door-keeper, ... I will in all things obey his decrees, lest when I come to the gates of the kingdom of heaven, there should be none to open them."^ The decision of the prudent Oswy gave the British Isles to Rome ; for not only was all England quickly won to the Roman side, but the Celtic churches and monasteries of Wales and Ire- 1 Bede's ^^^/. i¥z>/. TTI. 25. THE ROMAN VICTORY. 381 land and Scotland soon came to conform to the Roman standard and custom. "By the assistance of our Lord," says the pious Latin chronicler, " the monks were brought to the canonical observation of Easter, and the right mode of the tonsure." The Roman Victory Fortunate for England. — There is no doubt but that it was very fortunate for England that the contro- versy turned as it did. For one of the most important of the consequences of the conversion of Britain was the re-establishment of that connection of the island with Roman civilization which had been severed by the calamities of the fifth century. As Green says, — he is speaking of the embassy of St. Augustine, — "The march of the monks as they chanted their solemn litany was in one sense a return of the Roman legions who withdrew at the trumpet call of Alaric. . . . Practically Augustine's landing renewed that union with the western world which the landing of Hengest had destroyed. The new England was admitted into the older Commonwealth of nations. The civilization, art, letters, which had fled before the sword of the English conquerors returned with the Christian faith." Now all this advantage would have been lost had Zona instead of Rome won at Whitby. England would have been isolated from the world, and would have had no part or lot in that rich common life which was destined to the European peoples as co-heirs of the heritage bequeathed to them by the dying empire. A second valuable result of the Roman victory was the hasten- ing of the political unity of England through its ecclesiastical unity. The Celtic Church, in marked contrast with the Latin, was utterly devoid of capacity for organization. It could have done nothing in the way of developing among the several Anglo- Saxon states the sentiment of nationality. On the other hand, the Roman Church, through the exercise of a central authority, through national synods and general legislation, overcame the isolation of the different kingdoms, and helped powerfully to draw them together into a common political hfe. The Conversion of Germany. — The conversion of the tribes of 382 CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. Germany was effected by Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Frankish mis- sionaries, — and the sword of Charlemagne (seep. 406). The great apostle of Germany was the Saxon Winfred, or Winifred, bet- ter known as St. Boniface. During a long and intensely active Hfe he founded schools and monasteries, organized churches, preached and baptized ; and at last died a martyr's death (a.d. 753). The christianizing of the tribes of Germany relieved the Teu- tonic states of Western Europe from the constant peril of massacre by their heathen kinsmen, and erected a strong barrier in Central Europe against the advance of the waves of Turanian paganism and Mohammedanism which for centuries beat so threateningly against the eastern frontiers of Germany.' Christianity in the North. — The progress of Christianity in the North was slow : but gradually, during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, the missionaries of the Church won over all the Scandinavian peoples. One important effect of their conver- sion was the checking of their piratical expeditions, which pre- viously had vexed almost every shore to the south. By the opening of the fourteenth century all Europe was claimed by Christianity, save a limited district in Southern Spain held by the Moors, and another in the Baltic regions possessed by the still pagan Finns and Lapps. Monasticism. — It was during this very conflict with the bar- barians that the Church developed the remarkable institution known as Monasticism, which denotes a hfe of seclusion from the world, with the object of promoting the interests of the soul. The central idea of the system is, that the body is a weight upon the spirit, and that to "mortify the flesh " is a prime duty. The monastic system embraced two prominent classes of ascetics : 1 The conversion of Russia dates from about the close of the tenth century. Its evangelization was effected by the missionaries of Constantinople, that is, of the Greek, or Eastern Church. Of the Turanian tribes, only the Hunga- rians, or Magyars, embraced Christianity. All the other Turanian peoples that appeared on the eastern edge of Europe during the Middle Ages, came as pagan or Moslem enemies. MONASTICISM. I. Hermits, or anchorites, persons who, retiring from the world, Hved soHtary Hves in desolate places; 2. Cenobites, or monks, who formed commmnities and lived under a common roof. St. Antony, an Egyptian ascetic, who by his example and influ- ence gave a tremendous impulse to the strange enthusiasm, is called the " father of the hermits." The persecutions that arose under the Roman emperors, driving thousands into the deserts, contributed vastly to the movement. The cities of Egypt became almost emptied of their Christian population. About the close of the fourth century the cenobite system was introduced into Europe, and in an astonishingly short space of time spread throughout all the western countries where Christianity had gained a foothold. Monasteries arose on every side, in the wilds of the desert and in the midst of the crowded city. The number that fled to these retreats was vastly augmented by the disorder and terror attending the invasion of the barbarians and the overthrow of the empire in the West. With the view of introducing some sort of system and uniformity among the numerous communities, fraternities or associations were early organized and spread rapidly. The three essential vows re- quired of their members were poverty, chastity, and obedience. The most celebrated of these fraternities was the Order of the Benedictines, so called from its founder St. Benedict (a.d. 480- 543). This order became immensely popular. At one time it embraced about 40,000 abbeys. Advantages of the Monastic System. — The early establishment of the monastic system in the Church resulted in great advantages to the new world that was shaping itself out of the ruins of the old. The monks became missionaries, and it was largely to their zeal and devotion that the Church owed her speedy and signal victory over the barbarians ; they also became teachers, and under the shelter of the monasteries established schools which were the nur- series of learning during the Middle Ages ; they became copyists, and with great care and industry gathered and multiplied ancient manuscripts, and thus preserved and transmitted to the modern CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. world much classical learning and literature that would otherwise have been lost ; they became agriculturists, especially the Bene- dictines, and by skilful labor converted the wilderness about their retreats into fair gardens, thus redeeming from barrenness some of the most desolate districts of Europe ; they became further the almoners of the pious and the wealthy, and distributed alms to the poor and needy. Everywhere the monasteries opened their hospitable doors to the weary, the sick, and the discouraged. In a word, these retreats were the inns, the asylums, and the hospitals, as well as the schools of learning and the nurseries of religion, of mediaeval Europe. Nor should we fail to mention how the asceti- cism of the monks checked those flagrant social evils that had sapped the strength of the Roman race, and which uncounteracted would have contaminated aftd weakened the purer peoples of the North ; nor how, through its requirements of self-control and self-sacrifice, it gave prominence to the inner life of the spirit. Conclusion. — With a single word or two respecting the gen- eral consequences of the conversion to Christianity of the Teu- tonic tribes, we will close the present chapter. The adoption of a common faith by the European peoples drew them together into a sort of rehgious brotherhood, and rendered it possible for the continent to employ its undivided strength, dur- ing the succeeding centuries, in staying the threatening progress toward the West of the colossal Mohammedan power of the East. The Christian Church set in the midst of the seething, martial nations and races of Europe an influence that fostered the gentler virtues, and a power that was always to be found on the side of order, and usually of mercy. It taught the brotherhood of man, the essential equality in the sight of God of the high and the low, and thus pleaded powerfully and at last effectually for the freedom of the slave and the serf. It prepared the way for the introduc- tion among the barbarians of the arts, the literature, and the cult- ure of Rome, and contributed powerfully to hasten the fusion into a single people of the Latins and Teutons, of which import- ant matter we shall treat in the following chapter. ^ ROMANCE NATIONS. 385 CHAPTER XXXIV. fusio5j of the latin and teutonic peoples. Introductory. — Having seen how the Hebrew element, that is, the ideas, beHefs, and sentiments of Christianity, became the common possession of the Latins and Teutons, it yet remains to notice how these two races, upon the soil of the old empire, intermingled their blood, their language, their laws, their usages and customs, to form new peoples, new tongues, and new institu- tions. The Romance Nations. — In some districts the barbarian invaders and the Roman provincials were kept apart for a long time by the bitter antagonism of race, and a sense of injury on the one hand and a feeling of disdainful superiority on the other. But for the most part the Teutonic intruders and the Latin-speak- ing inhabitants of Italy, Spain, and Gaul very soon began freely to mingle their blood by family aUiances. It is quite impossible to say what proportion the Teutons bore to the Romans. Of course the proportion varied in the different countries. In none of the countries named, however, was it large enough to absorb the Latinized population ; on the contrary, the barbarians were themselves absorbed, yet not without changing very essentially the body into which they were incorporated. By the close of the ninth century the two elements had become quite intimately blended, and a century or two later Roman and Teuton have ahke disappeared, and we are introduced to Itahans, Spaniards, and Frenchmen. These we call Romance nations, because at base they are Roman.^ 1 Britain did not become a Romance nation on account of the nature of the barbarian conquest of" that island. The Romanized provincials, as ha? been seen, were there almost destroyed by the fierce Teutonic invaders. 386 THE LATIN AND TEUTONIC PEOPLES. The Formation of the Romance Languages. — During the five centuries of their subjection to Rome, the natives of Spain and Gaul forgot their barbarous dialects and came to speak a corrupt I^tin. Now in exactly the same way that the dialects of the Celtic tribes of Gaul and of the Celtiberians of Spain had given way to the more refined speech of the Romans, did 'the rude lan- guages of the Teutons yield to the more cultured speech of the Roman provincials. In the course of two or three centuries after their entrance into the empire, Goths, Lombards, Burgundians, and Franks had, in a large measure, dropped their own tongue, and were speaking that of the people they had subjected. But of course this provincial Latin underwent a great change upon the lips of the mixed descendants of the Romans and Teutons. Owing to the absence of a common popular literature, the changes that took place in one country did not exactly correspond to those going on in another. Hence, in the course of time, we find dif- ferent dialects springing up, and by about the ninth century the Latin has virtually disappeared as a spoken language, and its place been usurped by what will be known as the Itahan, Spanish, and French languages, all more or less resembling the ancient Latin, and all called Romance tongues, because children of the old Roman speech. Personal Character of the Teutonic Legislation. — The legisla- tion of the barbarians was generally personal instead of territorial, as with us ; that is, instead of all the inhabitants of a given country being subject to the same laws, there were different ones for the different classes of society. The Latins, for instance, were sub- ject in private law only to the old Roman code, while the Teutons lived under the rules and regulations which they had brought with them from beyond the Rhine. Even among themselves the Teutons knew nothing of the mod- ern legal maxim that all should stand equal before the law. The penalty inflicted upon the evil-doer depended, not upon the nature of his crime, but upon his rank, or that of the party injured. Thus slaves and serfs could be beaten and put to death for minor ORDEALS. 387 offences, while a freeman might atone for any crime, even for murder, by the payment of a fine, the amount of the penalty being determined by the rank of the victim. Among the Saxons the life of a king's thane was worth 1200 shillings, while that of a common free man was valued only one-sixth as high. Ordeals. — The modes by which guilt or innocence was ascer- tained show in how rude a state was the administration of justice among the barbarians. One very common method of proof was by what were called ordeals, in which the question was submitted to the judgment of God. Of these the chief were the ordeal by fire, the ordeal by water, and the ordeal by battle. The ordeal by fi?r consisted in taking in the hand a red-hot iron, or in walking blindfolded with bare feet over a row of hot plough- shares laid lengthwise at irregular distances. If the person escaped without serious harm, he was held to be innocent. Another way of performing the fire ordeal was by running through the flame of two fires built close together, or by walking over live brands ; hence the phrase " to haul over the coals." The ordeal by water was of two kinds, by hot water and cold. In the hot-water ordeal the accused person thrust his arm into boiling water, and if no hurt was visible upon the arm three days after the operation, the person was considered guiltless. When we speak of one's being " in hot water," we use an expression which had its origin in this ordeal. In the cold-water trial the suspected person was thrown into a stream or pond : if he floated, he was held guilty ; if he sank, innocent. The water, it was believed, would reject the guilty, but receive the innocent into its bosom. The practice common in Europe until a very recent date of trying supposed witches by weighing them, or by throwing them into a pond of water to see whether they would sink or float, grew out of this superstition. The t7Hal by combat, or wager of battle, was a solemn judicial duel. It was resorted to in the belief that God would give victory to the right. Naturally it was a favorite mode of trial among a people who found their chief dehght in fighting. Even religious 388 THE LATIN AND TEUTONIC PEOPLES. disputes were sometimes settled in this way. The modern duel may probably be regarded as a relic of this form of trial. The ordeal was frequently performed by deputy, that is, one person for hire or for the sake of friendship would undertake it for another ; hence the expression " to go through fire and water to serve one." Especially was such substitution common in the judicial duel, as women and ecclesiastics were generally forbidden to appear personally in the lists. The champions, as the deputies were called, became in time a regular class in society, like the gladiators in ancient Rome. Religious houses and chartered towns hired champions at a regular salary to defend all the cases to which they might become a party. The Revival of the Eoman Law. — Now the barbarian law- system, if such it can be called, the character of which we have simply suggested by the preceding illustrations, gradually displaced the Roman law in all those countries where the two systems at first existed alongside each other, save in Italy and Southern France, where the provincials greatly outnumbered the invaders. But the admirable jurisprudence of Rome was bound to assert its superiority. About the close of the eleventh century, there was a great revival in the study of the Roman law as embodied in the Coi'pus Juris Civilis of Justinian (see p. 358), and in the course of a century or two this became either the groundwork or a strong modifying element in the jurisprudence of almost all the peoples of Europe. What took place may be illustrated by reference to the fate of the Teutonic languages in Gaul, Italy, and Spain. As the barba- rian tongues, after maintaining a place in those countries for two or three centuries, at length gave place to the superior Latin, which became the basis of the new Romance languages, so now in the domain of law the barbarian maxims and customs, though holding their place more persistently, likewise finally give way, almost everywhere and in a greater or less degree, to the more excellent law-system of the empire. Rome must fulfil her destiny and give laws to the nations. THE REIGN OF JUSTINIAN. 389 CHAPTER XXXV. THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST. The Reign of Justinian (a.d. 5 2 7-565 ) . — During the fifty years immediately following the fall of Rome, the Eastern emperors struggled hard and doubtfully to withstand the waves of the bar- barian inundation which constantly threatened to overwhelm Con- stantinople with the same awful calamities that had befallen the imperial city of the West. Had the new Rome — the destined refuge for a thousand years of Gr«co-Roman learning and culture — also gone down at this time before the storm, the loss to the cause of civilization would have been incalculable. Fortunately, in the year 527, there ascended the Eastern throne a prince of unusual ability, to whom fortune gave a general of such rare genius that his name has been allotted a place in the short list of the great commanders of the world. Justinian was the name of the prince, and Belisarius that of the soldier. The sovereign has given name to the period, which is called after him the '• Era of Justinian." It will be recalled that it was during this reign that Africa was recovered from the Vandals and Italy from the Goths (see p. 372). These conquests brought once more within the boundaries of the empire soms of the fairest lands of the West. But that which has given Justinian's reign a greater distinction than any conferred upon it by brilliant military achievements, is the collection and publication, under the imperial direction, of the Corpus Juris Civilis, or " Body of the Roman Law." This work is the most precious legacy of Rome to the modern world. In causing its publication, Justinian earned the title of " The Law- giver of Civilization " (see p. 358). In the midst of this brilliant reign an awful pestilence, bred 390 THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST. probably in Egypt, fell upon the empire, and did not cease its ravages until about fifty years afterwards. This plague was the most terrible scourge of which history has any knowledge, save perhaps the so-called Black Death, which afflicted Europe in the fourteenth century. The number of victims of the plague has been estimated at 100,000,000. The Reign of Heraclius (a.d. 610-641). — For half a century after the death of Justinian, the annals of the Byzantine empire are unimportant. Then we reach the reign of Heraclius, a prince about whose worthy name gather matters of significance in world- history. About this time Chosroes II., king of Persia, wrested from the empire the fortified cities that guarded the Euphratean frontier, and overran all Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor. What was known as the True Cross was torn from the church at Jerusalem and car- ried off in triumph to Persia. In order to compel Chosroes to recall his armies, which were distressing the provinces of the empire, Heraclius, pursuing the same plan as that by which the Romans in the Second Punic War forced the Carthaginians to call Hannibal out of Italy (see p. 264), with a small company of picked men marched boldly into the heart of Persia, and in revenge for the insults heaped by the infidels upon the Chris- tian churches, overturned the altars of the fire-worshippers and quenched their sacred flames. The struggle between the two rival empires was at last decided by a terrible combat known as the Battle of Nineveh (a.d. 627), which was fought around the ruins of the old Assyrian capital. The Persian army was almost annihilated. In a few days grief or violence ended the life of Chosroes. With him passed away the glory of the Second Persian Empire. The new Persian king negotiated a treaty of peace with Heraclius. The articles of this treaty left the boundaries of the two empires unchanged. The Empire becomes Greek. — The two combatants in the fierce struggle which we have been watching, were too much ab- sorbed in their contentions to notice the approach of a storm j^^Sta THE EMPIRE BECOMES GREEK. 391 from the deserts of Arabia, — a storm destined to overwhelm both alike in its destructive course. Within a few years from the date of the Battle of Nineveh, the Saracens entered upon their surprising career of conquest, which in a short time completely changed the face of the entire East, and set the Crescent, the em- blem of a new faith, alike above the fire-altars of Persia and the churches of the Empire. Heraclius himself lived to see — so cruel are the vicissitudes of fortune — the very provinces which he had wrested from the hands of the fire-worshippers, in the hands of the more insolent followers of the False Prophet, and the Crescent planted within sight of the walls of Constantinople. The conquests of the Saracens cut off from the empire those provinces that had the smallest Greek element and thus rendered the population subject to the emperor more homogeneous, more thoroughly Greek. The Roman element disappeared, and the court of Constantinople became Greek in tone, spirit, and manners. Hence, instead of longer applying to the empire the designation Roman, we shall from this on call it the Greek, or Byzantine empire. We shall trace no further as a separate story the fortunes of the Eastern emperors. In the eighth century the so-called Icono- clastic controversy ^ will draw our attention to them ; and then again in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Crusades will once more bring their affairs into prominence, and we shall see a line of Latin princes seated for a time (from 1204 to 1261) upon the throne of Constantine.^ Finally, in the year 1453, we shall wit- ness the capture of Constantinople by the Turks,^ which disaster closes the long and checkered history of the Graeco-Roman em- pire in the East. 1 See p. 417. 2 See p_ ^^5^ "■ See p. 462. Jfr 392 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. CHAPTER XXXVI. MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. Introductory Statement. — The Arabs, or Saracens, who are now about to play their surpris- ing part in history, are, after the Hebrews, the most important peo- ple of the Semitic race. Secure ^^ in their inaccessible deserts, the Arabs have never as a people bowed their necks to a foreign conqueror, although portions of the Arabian peninsula have been repeatedly subjugated by different races. Religious Condition of Arabia before Mohammed. — Before the reforms of Mohammed, the Arabs were idolaters. Their holy city was Mecca. Here was the ancient and most revered shrine of the Caaba, where was preserved a sa- cred black stone believed to have been given by an angel to Abra- ham. But though the native tribes of the peninsula were idolaters, still there were many followers of other faiths ; for Arabia at this time was a land of religious freedom. The altar of the fire-worshipper rose alongside the Jewish synagogue and the Christian church. AN ARAB RIDER. MOHAMMED. 393 The Jews especially were to be found everywhere in great numbers, having been driven from Palestine by the Roman persecutions. It was from the Jews and Christians, doubtless, that Mohammed learned many of the doctrines that he taught. Mohammed. — Mohammed, the great prophet of the Arabs, was born in the holy city of Mecca, about the year 5 70 of our era. He sprang from the distinguished tribe of the Koreishites, the custodians of the sacred shrine of the Caaba. Like Moses, he spent many years of his life as a shepherd. MOSQUE AND C\.\BA AT MECCA. .Fu.i. a phc-'o^raph.) Mohammed possessed a deeply religious nature, and it was his wont often to retire to a cave a few miles from Mecca, and there spend long vigils in prayer. He declared that here he had visions, in which the angel Gabriel appeared to him, and made to him revelations which he was commanded to make known to his fellow- men. The sum of the new faith which he was to teach was this : "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet." Mohammed communicated the nature of his visions to his wife, and she became his first convert. At the end of three years his disciples numbered forty persons. The Hegira (622). — The teachings of Mohammed at last 394 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. aroused the anger of a powerful party among the Koreishites, who feared that they, as the guardians of the national idols of the Caaba, would be compromised in the eyes of the other tribes by allowing such heresy to be openly taught by one of their num- ber, and accordingly plots were formed against his life. Barely escaping assassination, he fled to the city of Medina. This Hegira, or Flight, as the word signifies, occurred in the year 622, and was considered by the Moslems as such an important event in the history of their religion that they adopted it as the beginning of a new era, and from it still continue to reckon their dates. The Faith extended by the Sword. — His cause being warmly espoused by the inhabitants of Medina, Mohammed threw aside the character of an exhorter, and assumed that of a warrior. He declared it to be the will of God that the new faith should be spread by the sword. Accordingly, the year following the Hegira, he began to attack and plunder caravans. The flames of a sacred war were soon kindled. The reckless enthusiasm of his wild con- verts was intensified by the assurance of the Apostle that death met in fighting those who resisted the true faith ensured the martyr immediate entrance upon the joys of Paradise. Within ten years from the time of the assumption of the sword by Mohammed, Mecca had been conquered, and the new creed established among all the tribes of Arabia. Mohammed died in the year 632. No character in all history has been the subject of more conflicting speculations than the Arabian Prophet. By some he has been called a self-deluded enthusiast, while others have denounced him as the boldest of impostors. We shah, perhaps, reconcile these discordant views, if we bear in mind that the same person may, in different periods of a long career, be both. The Koran and the Doctrines of Islam. — Before going on to trace the conquests of the successors of Mohammed, we must form some acquaintance with the religion of the great Prophet. The doctrines of Mohammedanism, or Islam, which means ABUBEKR. 395 " submission," are contained in the Koran, the sacred book of the Moslems. They declare that God has revealed himself through four holy men : to Moses he gave the Pentateuch ; to David, the Psalms ; to Jesus, the Gospels ; and to Mohammed, the last and greatest of all the prophets, he gave the Koran. ''There is no God save Allah," is the fundamental doctrine of Islaraism, and to this is added the equally binding declaration that " Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah." The faithful Moslem must also believe in the sacredness and infallibility of the Koran. He is also required to believe in the resurrection and the day of judgment, and an after-state of happiness and of misery. Also he must believe in the absoluteness of the decrees of God, — that he foreordains whatsoever comes to pass, and that nothing man can do can change his appointments. The Koran, while requiring assent to the foregoing creed, incul- cates the practice of four virtues. The first is prayer ; five times each day must the believer turn his face towards Mecca and engage in devotion. The second requirement is almsgiving. The third is keeping the Fast of Ramadan, which lasts a whole month. The fourth duty is making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Abubekr, First Successor of Mohammed (632-634). — Upon the death of Mohammed a dispute at once arose as to his suc- cessor ; for the Prophet left no children, nor had he designated upon whom his mantle should fall. Abubekr, the Apostle's father- in-law, was at last chosen to the position, with the title of Caliph, or Vicar, of the Prophet, although many thought that the place belonged to Ali, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, and one of his first and most faithful companions. This question of succes- sion was destined at a later period to divide the Mohammedan world into two sects, animated by the most bitter and lasting hos- tility towards each other.^ During the first part of his caliphate, Abubekr was engaged in 1 The Mohammedans of Persia, who are known as Shiites, are the leaders of the party of Ali; while the Turks, known as Sunnites, are the chief ad- herents of the opposite party. 396 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. suppressing revolts in different parts of the peninsula. These commotions quieted, he was free to carry out the last injunction of the Prophet to his followers, which enjoined them to spread his doctrines by the sword, till all men had confessed the creed of Islam, or consented to pay tribute to the Faithful. The Conquest of Syria. — The country which Abubekr resolved first to reduce was Syria. A call addressed to all the Faithful throughout Arabia was responded to with the greatest alacrity and enthusiasm. From every quarter the warriors flocked to Medina, until the desert about the city was literally covered with their black tents, and crowded with men and horses and camels. After invoking the blessing of God upon the hosts, Abubekr sent them forward upon their holy mission. Heraclius made a brave effort to defend the holy places against the fanatical warriors of the desert, but all in vain. His armies were cut to pieces. Seeing there was no hope of saving Jerusalem, he removed from that city to Constantinople the True Cross, which he had rescued from the Persians (see p. 390). " Farewell, Syria," were his words, as he turned from the consecrated land which he saw must be given up to the followers of the False Prophet. The Conquest of Persia (632-641). — While one Saracen army was overrunning Syria, another was busy with the subjugation of Persia. Enervated as this country was through luxury, and weak- ened by her long wars with the Eastern emperors, she could offer but feeble resistance to the terrible energy of the Saracens. Soon after the conquest of Persia, the Arabs crossed the moun- tains that wall Persia on the north, and spread their faith among the Turanian tribes of Central Asia. Among the most formidable of the clans that adopted the new religion were the Turks. Their conversion was an event of the greatest significance, for it was their swords that were destined to uphold and to spread the creed of Mohammed when the fiery zeal of his own countrymen should abate, and their arms lose the dreaded power which religious fanat- icism had for a moment imparted to them. The Conquest of Egypt {dz'^). — The reduction of Persia was CONQUEST OF NORTHERN AFRICA. 397 not yet fully accomplished, when the Caliph Omar, the successor of Abubekr, commissioned Amrou, the chief whose valor had won many of the cities of Palestine, to carry the standard of the Prophet into the Valley of the Nile. Alexandria, after holding out against the arms of the Saracens for more than a year, was at length abandoned to the enemy. Amrou, in communicating the intelligence of the important event to Omar, wrote him also about the great Alexandrian Library, and asked him what he should do with the books. Omar is said to have rephed : " If these books agree with the Koran, they are useless ; if they disagree, they are pernicious : in either case they ought to be destroyed." Accord- ingly the books were distributed among the four thousand baths of the capital, and served to feed their fires for six months. The Conquest of Northern Africa (643-689). — The lieuten- ants of the Caliphs were obliged to do much and fierce fighting before they obtained possession of the oft-disputed shores of North Africa. They had to contend not only with the Grseco- Roman Christians of the coast, but to battle also with the idolatrous Moors of the interior. Furthermore, all Europe had begun to feel alarm at the threatening advance of the Saracens ; so now Roman soldiers from Constantinople, and Gothic warriors from Italy and Spain hastened across the Mediterranean to aid in the protection of Carthage, and to help arrest the alarming progress of these wild fanatics of the desert. But all was of no avail. Destiny had allotted to the followers of the Apostle the land of Hannibal and Augustine. Carthage was taken and razed to the ground, and the entire coast from the Nile to the Atlantic was forced to acknowledge the authority of the Caliphs. By this conquest all the countries of Northern Africa, whose history for a thousand years had been intertwined with that of the opposite shores of Europe, and which at one time seemed destined to share in the career of freedom and progress opening to the peoples of that continent, were drawn back into the fatahsm, the despotism, and the stagnation of the East. From being an extension of Europe, they became once more an exten- sion of Asia. 398 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. Attacks upon Constantinople. — Only fifty years had now passed since the death of Mohammed, but during this short time his standard had been carried by the lieutenants of his successors through Asia to the Hellespont on the one side, and across Africa to the Straits of Gibraltar on the other. From each of these two points, so remote from each other, the fanatic warriors of the desert were casting longing glances across those narrow passages of water which alone separated them from the single continent that their swift coursers had not yet traversed, or whence the spoil of the unbelievers had not yet been borne to the feet of the Vicar of the Prophet of God. We may expect to see the Saracens at one or both of these points attempt the invasion of Europe. The first attempt was made in the East (in 668), where the Arabs endeavored to gain control of the Bosporus, by wresting Constantinople from the hands of the Eastern emperors. But the capital was saved through the use, by the besieged, of a certain bituminous compound, called Greek Fire. In 716, the city was again besieged by a powerful Moslem army ; but its heroic defence by the Emperor Leo III. saved the capital for several centuries longer to the Christian world. The Conquest of Spain (711). — While the Moslems were thus being repulsed from Europe at its eastern extremity, the gates of the continent were opened to them by treachery at the western, and they gained a foothold in Spain. At the great battle of Xeres (711), Roderic, the last of the Visigothic kings, was hope- lessly defeated, and all the peninsula, save some mountainous regions in the northwest, quickly submitted to the invaders. Thus some of the fairest provinces of Europe were lost to Christendom for a period of nearly eight hundred years. No sooner had the subjugation of the country been effected than multitudes of colonists from Arabia, Syria, and North Africa crowded into the peninsula, until in a short time the provinces of Seville, Cordova, Toledo, and Granada became Arabic in dress, manners, language, and religion. Invasion of France: Battle of Tours (732). — Four or five INVASION OF FRANCE. 399 years after the conquest of Spain, the Saracens crossed the Pyrenees, and estabHshed themselves upon the plains of Gaul. This advance of the Moslem hosts beyond the northern wall of Spain was viewed with the greatest alarm by all Christendom. It looked as though the followers of Mohammed would soon possess all the continent. As Draper pictures it, the Crescent, lying in a vast semi-circle upon the northern shore of Africa and the curving coast of Asia, with one horn touching the Bosporus and the other the Straits of Gibraltar, seemed about to round to the full and overspread all Europe. In the year 732, exactly one hundred years after the death of the great Prophet, the Franks, under their renowned chieftain, Charles, and their alHes met the Moslems upon the plains of Tours in the centre of Gaul, and committed to the issue of a single battle the fate of Christendom and the future course of history. The desperate valor displayed by the warriors of both armies was worthy of the prize at stake. Abderrahman, the Mohammedan leader, fell in the thick of the fight, and night saw the complete discomfiture of the Moslem hordes. The loss that the sturdy blows of the Germans had inflicted upon them was enormous, the accounts of that age swelling the number killed to the impossible figures of 375,000. The disaster at all events was too overwhelm- ing to permit the Saracens ever to recover from the blow, and they soon retreated behind the Pyrenees. The young civilization of Europe was thus delivered from an appalling danger, such as had not threatened it since the fearful days of Attila and the Huns. The heroic Duke Charles who had led the warriors of Christendom to the glorious victory was given the surname Mai-tel, the '■'■ Hammer," in commemoration of the mighty blows of his huge battle-axe. Changes in the Caliphate. — During the century of conquests we have traced, there were many changes in the caliphate. Abubekr was followed by Omar (634-644), Othman (644-655), and Ali (655-661), all of whom fell by the hands of assassins, for from the very first dissensions were rife among the followers of 400 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. the Prophet. Ah was the last of the four so-called " Ortho- dox Caliphs," all of whom were relatives or companions of the Prophet. Moawiyah, a usurper, was now recognized as Caliph (66 1). He succeeded in making the office hereditary, instead of elective, as it hitherto had been, and thus estabhshed what is known as the dynasty of the Ommiades,^ the rulers of which family for nearly a century issued their commands from the city of Damascus. The house of the Ommiades was overthrown by the adherents of the house of Ali, who established a new dynasty (750), known as that of the Abbassides, so called from Abbas, an uncle of Mohammed. The new family, soon after coming to power, estab- lished the seat of the royal residence on the lower Tigris, and upon the banks of that river founded the renowned city of Bag- dad, which was destined to remain the abode of the Abbasside Caliphs for a period of five hundred years, — until the subver- sion of the house by the Tartars of the North. The golden age of the caliphate of Bagdad covers the latter part of the eighth and the ninth century of our era, and was illus- trated by the reign of the renowned Haroun-al-Raschid (786- 809), the hero of the Arabian Nights. During this period science, philosophy, and literature were most assiduously cultivated by the Arabian scholars, and the court of the Caliphs presented in culture and luxury a striking contrast to the rude and barbarous courts of the kings and princes of Western Christendom. The Dismemberment of the Caliphate. — "At the close of the first century of the Hegira," writes Gibbon, " the Caliphs were the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe. The word that went forth from the palace at Damascus was obeyed on the Indus, on the Jaxartes, and on the Tagus." Scarcely less potent was the word that at first went forth from Bagdad. But in a short time the extended empire of the Abbassides, through the quarrels of sectaries and the ambitions of rival aspirants for the honors of the caliphate, was broken in fragments, and from three capitals — 1 So called from Ommaya, an ancestor of Moawi3'ah. SPREAD OF MOHAMMEDANISM. 401 Bagdad upon the Tigris, Cairo upon the Nile, and Cordova upon the Guadalquivir — were issued the commands of three rival Caliphs, each of whom was regarded by his adherents as the sole rightful spiritual and civil successor of the Apostle. All, however, held the great Arabian Prophet in the same rev- erence, all maintained with equal zeal the sacred character of the Koran, and all prayed with their faces turned toward the holy city of Mecca. Spread of the Religion and Language of the Arabs. — Just as the Romans Romanized the peoples they conquered, s.o did the Saracens Saracenize the populations of the countries subjected to their authority. Over a large part of Spain, over North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Babylonia, Persia, Northern India, and portions of Central Asia, were spread — to the more or less perfect exclusion of native customs, speech, and worship — the manners, the lan- guage, and the religion of the Arabian conquerors.^ In Arabia no religion was tolerated save the faith of the Koran. But in all the countries beyond the limits of the peninsula, freedom of worship was allowed (save to idolaters, who were to be " rooted out"); unbelievers, however, must purchase this liberty by the payment of a moderate tribute. Yet notwithstanding this tolera- tion, the Christian and Zoroastrian religions gradually died out almost everywhere throughout the domains of the Caliphs.^ The Defects of Islam. — Civilization certainly owes a large debt to the Saracens. They preserved and transmitted much that was valuable in the science of the Greeks and the Persians (see p. 472). They improved trigonometry and algebra, and from India they 1 Beyond the eastern edge of Mesopotamia, the Arabs failed to impress their language upon the subjected peoples, or in any way, save in the matter of creed, to leave upon them any important permanent trace of their con- quests. '" The number of Guebers, or fire-worshippers, in Persia at the present time is estimated at from 50,000 to 100,000. About the same number may be counted in India, the descendants of the Guebers who fled from Persia at the time of the Arabian invasion. They are there called Parsees, from the land whence they came. 402 MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS. borrowed the decimal system of notation and introduced it into the West. Many of the doctrines of Islam, however, are most unfavor- able to human liberty, progress, and improvement. It teaches fatalism, and thus discourages effort and enterprise. It allows polygamy and puts no restraint upon divorce, and thus destroys the sanctity of the family hfe. It permits slavery and fosters despotism. It inspires a bhnd and bigoted hatred of race and creed, and thus puts far out of sight the salutary truth of the brotherhood of man. Because of these and other scarcely less prominent defects in its teachings, Islam has proved a blight and curse to almost every race embracing its sterile doctrines. Mohammedism is vastly superior, however, either to fetichism or idolatry, and consequently, upon peoples very low in the scale of civilization, it has an elevating influence. Thus, upon the negro tribes of Central Africa, where it is to-day spreading rapidly, it is acknowledged to have a civilizing effect. r GENERAL REMARKS. 403 CHAPTER XXXVIL CHARLEMAGNE AND THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. General Remarks. — In the foregoing chapter we traced the rise and dechne of the power of the Saracens. We saw the Semitic East roused for a moment to a Hfe of tremendous energy by the miracle of rehgious enthusiasm, and then beheld it sinking rapidly again into inaction and weakness, disappointing all its early promises. Manifestly the " Law " is not to go forth from Mecca. The Semitic race is not to lead the civiHzation of the world. But returning again to the West, we discover among the Teutonic barbarians indications of such youthful energy and life, that we are at once persuaded that to them has been given the future. The Franks, who, with the aid of their confederates, withstood the advance of the Saracens upon the field of Tours, and saved Europe from subjection to the Koran, are the people that first attract our attention. It is among them that a man appears who makes the first grand attempt to restore the laws, the order, the institutions of the ancient Romans. Charlemagne, their king, is the imposing figure that moves amidst all the events of the times ; indeed, is the one who makes the events, and renders the period in which he lived an epoch in universal history. The story of this era affords the key to very much of the subsequent history of Europe. How Duke Pepin became King of the Franks. — Charles Mar- tel, whose tremendous blows at Tours earned for him his significant surname (see p. 399), although the real head of the Frankish nation, was nominally only an officer of the Merovingian court. He died without ever having borne the title of king, notwithstand- ing he had exercised all the authority of that office. 404 RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. But Charles's son Pepin, called le Bref (the Short), on account of his diminutive stature, aspired to the regal title and honors. He resolved to depose his titular master, and to make himself king. Not deeming it wise, however, to do this without the, sanction of the Pope, he sent an embassy to represent to him the state of affairs, and to solicit his advice. Mindful of recent favors that he had received at the hands of Pepin, the Pope gave his approval to the proposed scheme by replying that it seemed alto- gether reasonable that the one who was king in power should be king also in name. This was sufficient. Chilperic — such was the name of the Merovingian king — was straightway deposed, and placed in a monastery ; while Pepin, whose own deeds to- gether with those of his illustrious father had done so much for the Frankish nation and for Christendom, was anointed and crowned king of the Franks (752), and thus became the first of the Carolingian line, the name of his illustrious son Charlemagne giving name to the house. Beginning of the Temporal Power of the Popes. — In the year 754 Pope Stephen II., who was troubled by the Lombards (see p. 374), besought Pepin's aid. Quick to return the favor which the head of the Church had rendered him in the establishment of his power as king, Pepin straightway crossed the Alps with a large army, expelled the Lombards from their recent conquests, and made a donation to the Pope of these captured cities and provinces (755)- This famous gift may be regarded as having laid the basis of the temporal power of the Popes ; for though Pepin probably did not intend to convey to the Papal See the absolute sovereignty of the transferred lancis, after a time the Popes claimed this, and finally came to exercise within the limits of the donated territory all the rights and powers of independent temporal rulers. So here we have the beginning of the celebrated Papal States, and of the story of the Popes as temporal princes. Accession of Charlemagne. — Pepin died in the year 768, and his kingdom passed into the hands of his two sons, Carlo- CHARLEMAGNE'S CAMPAIGNS. 405 man and Charles ; but within three years the death of Carloman and the free votes of the Franks conferred the entire kingdom upon Charles, better known as Charlemagne, or '^ Charles the Great." His Campaigns. — Charlemagne's long reign of nearly half a century — he ruled forty-six years — was filled with military expe- ditions and conquests, by which he so extended the boundaries of his dominions, that at his death they embraced the larger part of Western Europe. He made fifty-two military campaigns, the chief of which were against the Lombards, the Saracens, and the Saxons. Of these we will speak briefly. Among Charlemagne's first under- takings was a campaign against the Lombards, whose king, Desiderius, was troubling the Pope. Charle- magne wrested from Desiderius all his possessions, shut up the unfortu- nate king in a monastery, and placed on his own head the iron crown of the Lombards. While in Italy he visited Rome, and, in return for the favor of the Pope, confirmed the do- nation of his father, Pepin (774). In the ninth year of his reign Charlemagne gathered his warriors for a crusade against the Saracens in Spain. He crossed the Pyrenees, and succeeded in wresting from the Moslems all the northeastern corner of the peninsula. As he was leading his vic- torious bands back across the Pyrenees, the rear of his army under the lead of the renowned paladin Roland, while hemmed in by the walls of the Pass of Roncesvalles, was set upon by the wild mountaineers (the Gascons and Basques), and cut to pieces before Charlemagne could give relief. Of the details of this event no authentic account has been preserved ; but long after- wards it formed the favorite theme of the tales and songs of the Troubadours of Southern France. CHARLEMAGNE. (Head of a bronze equestrian statuette.) 406 RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. But by far the greater number of the campaigns of Charlemagne were directed against the pagan Saxons, who almost alone of the German tribes still retained their ancient idolatry. Thirty years and more of his reign were occupied in these wars across the Rhine. Reduced to submission again and again, as often did the Saxons rise in desperate revolt. The heroic Witikind was the "second Arminius " (see p. 308) who encouraged his countrymen to resist to the last the intruders upon their soil. Finally, Charle- magne, angered beyond measure by the obstinacy of the barbarians, caused 4500 prisoners in his hands to be massacred in revenge for the contumacy of the nation. The Saxons at length yielded, and accepted Charlemagne as their sovereign, and Christianity as their religion. Restoration of the Empire in the West (800). — An event of seemingly little real moment, yet, in its influence upon succeeding affairs, of the very greatest importance, now claims our attention. Pope Leo III. having called upon Charlemagne for aid against a hostile faction at Rome, the king soon appeared in person at the capital, and punished summarily the disturbers of the peace of the Church. The gratitude of Leo led him at this time to make a most signal return for the many services of the Frankish king. To understand his act a word of explanation is needed. For a considerable time a variety of circumstances had been fostering a growing feeling of enmity between the Itahans and the emperors at Constantinople. Disputes had arisen between the churches of the East and those of the West, and the Byzantine rulers had endeavored to compel the Italian churches to intro- duce certain changes and reforms in their worship, which had aroused the most determined opposition of the Roman bishops, who denounced the Eastern emperors as schismatics and heretics. Furthermore, v/hile persecuting the orthodox churches of the West, these unworthy emperors had allowed the Christian lands of the East to fall a prey to the Arabian infidels. Just at this time, moreover, by the crime of the Empress Irene, who had deposed her son Constantine VI., and put out his eyes, THE EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 407 that she might have his place, the Byzantine throne was vacant, in the estimation of the ItaHans, who contended that the crown of the Caesars could not be worn by a woman. Confessedly it was time that the Pope should exercise the power reposing in him as Head of the Church, and take away from the heretical and effemi- nate Greeks the Imperial crown, and bestow it upon some strong, orthodox, and worthy prince in the West. Now, among all the Teutonic chiefs of Western Christendom, there was none who could dispute the claims to the honor with the king of the Franks, the representative of a most illustrious house, and the strongest champion of the young Christianity of the West against her pagan foes. Accordingly, as Charlemagne was partic- ipating in the festivities of Christmas Day in the Cathedral of St. Peter at Rome, the Pope approached the kneeling king, — who declared afterwards that he was wholly ignorant of the designs of his friend, — and placing a crown of gold upon his head, pro- claimed him emperor of the Romans, and the rightful and con- secrated successor of Csesar Augustus and Constantine (800). The intention of Pope Leo was, by a sort of reversal of the act of Constantine, to bring back from the East the seat of the Im- perial court ; but what he really accomplished was a restoration of the line of emperors in the West, which 324 years before had been ended by Odoacer, when he dethroned Romulus Augustus and sent the royal vestments to Constantinople (see p. 348). We say this was what he actually effected ; for the Greeks of the East, disregarding wholly what the Roman people and the Pope had done, maintained their line of emperors just as though nothing had occurred in Italy. So now from this time on for centuries there were two emperors, one in the East, and another in the West, each claiming to be the rightful successor of Caesar Augustus.^ 1 From this time on it will be proper for us to use the terms Western Empire and Eastern Empire. These names should not, however, be em- ployed before this time, for the two parts of the old Roman Empire were simply administrative divisions of a single empire; we may though, properly 408 RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. Charlemagne's Death ; his Work. — Charlemagne enjoyed the Imperial dignity only fourteen years, dying in 814. Within the cathedral at Aachen, in a tomb which he himself had built, the dead monarch was placed upon a throne, with his royal robes around him, his good sword by his side, and the Bible open on his lap. It seemed as though men could not believe that his reign was over ; and it was not. By the almost universal verdict of students of the mediaeval period, Charles the Great has been pronounced the most imposing personage that appears between the fall of Rome and the fif- teenth century. His greatness has erected an enduring monument for itself in his name, the one by which he is best known — Charlemagne. Charlemagne must not be regarded as a warrior merely. His most noteworthy work was that which he effected as a reformer and statesman. He founded schools, reformed the laws, collected libraries, and extended to the Church a patronage worthy of a Con- stantine. In a word, he laid " the foundation of all that is noble and beautiful and useful in the history of the Middle Ages." Division of the Empire; Treaty of Verdun (843). — Like the kingdom of Alexander, the mighty empire of Charlemagne fell to pieces soo«i after his death. " His sceptre was the bow of Ulysses which could not be drawn by any weaker hand." After a troub- lous period of dissension and war, the empire was divided, by the important Treaty of Verdun, among Charlemagne's three grand- children, — Charles, Lewis, and Lothair. To Charles was given France ; to Lewis, Germany ; and to Lothair, Italy and the valley of the Rhone, together with a narrow strip of land extending from Switzerland to the mouth of the Rhine. With these possessions of Lothair went also the Imperial title. enough, speak of the Roman empke in the West, and the Roman empire in the East, or of the Western and Eastern emperors. See Bryce's Holy Roman Empire. The Eastern Empire was destroyed by the Turks in 1453; the line of Western Teutonic emperors was maintained until the present century, when it was ended by the act of Napoleon in the dismemberment of Germany (1806). EUROPE IN THE TIME OF CHARLES THE GREAT 814. Homan Empire oftheS\ Roman lEmpire of the TJ~ and its dependent StatesJ^ 25 30 35 40 45 N^. S ^. tO^J a'^ r s .^